Iran begins military drill in eastern country

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) started Saturday a military drill in eastern country, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The spokesman for the drill, General Hamid Sarkheili, said that at the first stage of the drill, dubbed the Great Prophet 8, the participating IRGC units started "stable regional defense" tactics after they were joined by Basij (volunteer) units. "In this phase, units entered the battlefield backed by aerial and artillery firepower and intelligence support by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in a bid to fulfill the (designated) objectives and bring the targets under direct fire," Sarkheili was quoted as saying. Also, the IRGC's electronic warfare systems successfully identified and thwarted the hypothetical enemy's electronic jamming campaign at this phase of the drills. Commander of the IRGC Ground Forces, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, said Wednesday that the three-day drill would cover areas in the east of Iran including the cities of Kerman, Siriz and Sirjan, aiming at testing the latest military equipment of the IRGC, maintaining the forces' preparedness and carrying out asymmetric warfare techniques.