July 10, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 6, 1429

TEHRAN, July 9: Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles on Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any US or Israeli attack, state television reported.

The exercise was being conducted at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about 40 per cent of the world’s oil passes.

Gen Hossein Salami, the air force commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said the exercise would “demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language,” the TV report said.

Footage showed at least six missiles firing simultaneously, and said the barrage included a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which officials have said has a range of 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) and is armed with a 1-ton conventional warhead. That would put Israel within striking distance.

“Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Salami as saying on Wednesday.

The report comes less than a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed fears that Israel and the United States could be preparing to attack his country, calling the possibility a “funny joke.”

“I assure you that there won’t be any war in the future,” Ahmadinejad told a news conference on Tuesday during a visit to Malaysia for a summit of developing Muslim nations called D-8 group.

But even as Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have dismissed the possibility of attack, Tehran has stepped up its warnings of retaliation if the Americans or Israelis do launch military action, including threats to hit Israel and US Gulf military bases with missiles and stop oil traffic through the vital Gulf region.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Wednesday’s tests “evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one.”

“Those who say that there is no Iranian missile threat against which we should build a missile defence system perhaps ought to talk to the Iranians about their claims,” Ms Rice said while travelling in Sofia, Bulgaria.—AP