AFP Forum

IRAN - MILITARY - MISSILE
Iran's Revolutionary Guards fire the Shahab-3 long-range ballistic missile in the desert outside the holy city of Qom, 02 November 2006. The Islamic republic fired its longer-range missile on exercise for the first time today as it began 10 days of war games amid a mounting standoff with the West over its nuclear programme.The hardline Revolutionary Guards fired the missiles, which have a range of up to 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) -- sufficient to threaten US bases in the Gulf -- during the first phase of the manoeuvres in the central desert, state television reported. A portrait of the Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is seen on the fence (foreground). AFP PHOTO/MEHR NEWS/STR
MEHR NEWS / AFP