Iran test-fires three new missile types

The Iranian military has test-fired three new missiles of a previously untested type, the country’s Fars news agency reported Saturday.

“Three types of missiles developed by the army and the defense industries have been successfully test-fired in the Ground Force’s recent war games,” Fars quoted Iranian Army Ground Force Lieutenant Gen. Kioumars Heydari as saying.

Heydari said the missiles were of a previously untested type, “different from the Naze’at 10 and the Fajr missiles.”

The Naze’at 10 is a long-range artillery rocket capable of reaching targets between 110 and 130 kilometers away, while the Fajr 5 artillery rocket has been used against Israel in the past few years by Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists.

Heydari said the Iranian military would also reveal new personnel carriers during National Army Day parades on Thursday, April 18.

A top army official told the news agency that the purpose of the trials was to deter Iran’s enemies from striking it. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made similar statements in the past.

Also on Saturday, Iranian Ambassador to Paris Ali Ahani warned that Tehran’s response to any Israeli aggression would be so crushing that it could trigger a third world war with unprecedented consequences.

“A potential Israeli attack on Iranian territories to hit a blow at its scientific and nuclear facilities is sheer madness and its consequences are catastrophic and uncontrollable,” Fars quoted the envoy as saying.

“Iran will not sit silent under such an aggression. Such a move can trigger a series of violence which will possibly lead to the World War III,” Ahani reportedly said, citing IAEA Resolution 533, which prohibits “all armed attacks against nuclear installations devoted to peaceful purposes whether under construction or in operation.”