TEHRAN: Iran said on Friday that it successfully carried out an air defense exercise using drones designed to intercept hostile targets in an area stretching from its southwestern to southeastern coasts, amid mounted tensions in the region.
On Thursday Pakistan carried out air strikes against separatist militants inside Iran in a retaliatory attack two days after Tehran launched air attacks in Balochistan.
The tit-for-tat strikes were the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm over wider instability in the region since the war between Israel and Hamas started on October 7.
Iranian forces have successfully launched a new air defense drill that uses drones to intercept and target hostile targets, state media quoted an Iranian army spokesman as saying.
Iran drills’ area
The two-day exercises, which started on Thursday, cover an area from Abadan in southwestern Khuzestan province to Chahbahar in southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province that lies with the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Irani media said the army’s air force and navy, the aerospace force and the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps participated in the drills.
Iran and Pakistan have a history of rocky ties but both have signaled a desire to cool tensions in the wake of this week’s attacks.
