Iran: We can hit 35 US bases in 'Minutes'

Iran: We can hit 35 US bases in 'Minutes'

 

           

ABC NewsBy LEE FERRAN | ABC News

           

An Iranian military commander said that his country has detailed contingency plans to strike nearly three dozen U.S. military bases in the region should Iran be attacked, local media reported Wednesday.



Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, told reporters the U.S. has 35 bases around Iran and all are "within the reach of our missiles" and could be hit "in the early minutes after an attack," according to an English-language report from Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency.



Press TV paraphrased Salami's description of the drills as a "firm response to those who threaten Iran with the option of military action."

Iran testing long-range missiles Press TV said that several different missile types were tested, including the Shabab-3, which reportedly has an operational range of over 900 miles, meaning it could reach potential targets throughout the Middle East. The U.S. and its allies have several military bases in the region, including the home of the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, a little over 120 miles from Iran's southern border. Israel's eastern border is about 600 miles from Iran's mainland.



Iran's new drills also coincided with fresh tensions that followed a new round of harsh sanctions against Iran that targeted the country's oil exports to Europe. Dozens of Iranian lawmakers have reportedly called on the Iranian military to shut down the Strait of Hormuz -- a narrow, strategic waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea through which an estimated one-fifth of the world's oil travels. As an apparent precaution against such action, the U.S. has quietly been building up its military forces in the Persian Gulf.



The Department of Defense declined to comment on Hajizadeh's claims.