KEY POINTS:
TEHRAN - Iran's Revolutionary Guards fired missiles carrying cluster warheads to shouts of "God is greatest" at the start of 10 days of military manoeuvres on Thursday, state television reported.
Tehran said the manoeuvres, dubbed "The Greatest Prophet" and which will include drills in the Gulf and Sea of Oman, were to demonstrate "defensive strength".
Days before, the United States led naval exercises in the Gulf to practise blocking the transport of weapons of mass destruction.
A military expert said Iran probably wanted to show off home-grown technology and said the missile did not seem to represent a new strategic threat.
Washington dismissed the exercises as sabre-rattling.
"I think they're trying to demonstrate that they're tough. But the Iranians also, I think, are not unaware that the security environment is one in which if they actually were to do something Iran would suffer greatly," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a radio interview.
"The Iranians are a threat and that's why the international community's got to be strong in resisting their ambitions.
"They're trying to say to the world you're not going to keep us from getting a nuclear weapon. The world has to say to them, yes, we will."
Tensions between Iran and Western powers are high as the latter try to agree a draft UN sanctions resolution aimed at forcing Tehran to scale back atomic work they fear may be used to make bombs. Iran says its aims are purely peaceful.
"Dozens of missiles were fired, including Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 missiles. The missiles had ranges from 300km up to 2000km," Iran's main state television channel reported.
Footage showed six missiles, which television said included Shahabs, being fired from mobile launchers and leaving long vapour trails as they soared into the air above the desert near the holy city of Qom in central Iran.
As they rose, Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards who gave the firing order, and other Guards were heard shouting: "God is Greatest".
A reporter for the Arabic-language Al-Alam television, also state-owned, told Reuters by telephone from the launch site that the Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 missiles launched on Thursday had been installed with cluster warheads.
State TV said the cluster warheads could carry 1400 bombs.
Experts say Iran's Shahab-3 missiles have a maximum range of some 2000km, making them capable of hitting Israel as well as US military bases in the Gulf. They say the Shahab-2 missile has a range of up to 700km.
Iran's manoeuvres follow US-led naval exercises involving 25 nations in the Gulf on Monday to train forces to block the transport of weapons of mass destruction and related equipment.
Safavi had said the latest war games would comprise drills by ground, air and naval forces, including submarines, mainly in the Gulf and Sea of Oman.
The Revolutionary Guards, the ideologically driven wing of the armed forces which has a separate command structure from the regular military, held war games in the Gulf in April in which they tested new missiles, torpedoes and other equipment.
Analysts interpreted those exercises as a statement that Iran could disrupt vital oil shipping lanes if pushed by an escalation in the dispute over the country's nuclear program.
- REUTERS
