Iran tests new naval weapon, media reports say

Aug 4, 2008, 12:23 GMT

Tehran - Iran said on Monday that it successfully tested a new naval weapon capable of hitting any vessel at sea, local media reported.

'The Revolutionary Guards have successfully conducted a series of tests on a naval weapon from which no enemy vessels would be safe over a 300-kilometre range,' the guards' commander-in-chief, General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

The report gave no details about the weapon, other that to say it 'would be sent to the depths' and was developed entirely from 'indigenous technology.'

The elite Revolutionary Guards have test-fired several missiles in recent years. A new version of the long-range Shahab-3, which Iran says is capable of targeting Israel, was tested in July.

Western military experts often cast doubt over the accuracy of claims by the Iranians.

Iranian officials said the missile tests were a reaction to veiled threats by the United States and Israel to attack Iranian nuclear sites after Tehran refused to suspend uranium enrichment.

General Jafari repeated his warning of last month that Iran would block the oil export route in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz if attacked.