Iran unveils underground missile base in Gulf

Iran unveils underground missile base in Gulf
The new base hosts missiles with 'huge destructive power', Revolutionary Guards head Hossein Salami said.
2 min read
08 January, 2021
Iran has said it is building several underground 'missile cities' [Getty]
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps revealed an underground missile facility near the Gulf on Friday, state media reported amid increased tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The Guards (IRGC) were building underground "missile cities" along Iran's Gulf coast, they warned last year.

"The base is one of several bases housing the Guards' Navy's strategic missiles," the Guards' head Major General Hossein Salami was quoted as saying.

"These missiles have ranges of hundreds of kilometres, enjoy pinpoint accuracy and huge destructive power, and can overcome the enemy's electronic warfare equipment," Salami said.

The base is "one of several bases housing the Navy's strategic missiles", he added.

The revelation comes amid a period of high tensions between Iran and the United States during the last days of the Trump presidency.

Washington withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran under President Donald Trump, launching a "maximum pressure" policy against the Islamic republic and reimposing crippling sanctions.

Iran marked on Sunday the first anniversary of the killing of top commander Qassem Soleimani.

Soleimani, who headed the Guards' foreign operations arm, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq.

Tehran retaliated by launching a volley of missiles at an Iraqi base hosting US troops on January 8. 

Hours later, Iranian forces on high alert mistakenly shot down a Ukranian passenger jet, killing all 176 people aboard.

The Islamic republic has repeatedly vowed further action to avenge Soleimani's killing.

The assassination last month of one of the country's top nuclear scientists saw Iran further break away from the 2015 nuclear treaty, upping uranium enrichment to 20 percent.

Tehran has blamed the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on arch-enemy Israel, which has also been accused of launching sabotage attacks against Iranian nuclear infrastructure over the past year.

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