Iran reportedly test-fires new missile

Local media divided over range and purpose of weapon, with some news outlets downplaying event.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
iran missile test frickin brill 248 88 (photo credit: AP [file])
iran missile test frickin brill 248 88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Iranian news agencies were divided over the range and purpose of a missile fired by the Islamic republic on Sunday. According to Reuters, while state-run television reported that a long-range missile was fired, the Fars News Agency said an anti-ship air-to-surface missile, with a range of 110 km. had in fact been tested. The latter report cited a missile having far less range than the Shihab-3 missile which Iran says can reach as far as Israel. The Fars account claimed that "experts have managed to install missiles with a range of 110 km. on Iranian jets and successfully fire [them]." "Now these jet fighters have acquired a new capability in confronting threats," the report said. Last Wednesday, a senior Teheran official announced that Iranian missiles can reach Israeli nuclear sites. "All the nuclear facilities in different parts of the land under the occupation of the Zionist regime are in the reach of Iran's missile defenses," Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic republic's Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.