Zeenews Bureau
Tehran (Iran): In a bold statement coming from Iran, an officer of Revolutionary Guards has claimed that Iran was capable of demolishing the nearby US military bases and hit Israel too, within minutes of an attack on the Islamic Republic.
Fars news agency of Iran quoted General Ami Ali Hajizadeh of the elite Revolutionary Guards as saying that US bases, and Israel or the "occupied territories" are in range of Iran's missiles and could be struck as a retaliatory measure.
"Measures have been taken so that we could destroy all these bases in the early minutes of an attack," said Hajizadeh, chief of the Guards' airspace division.
Iran’s retaliatory comments come just a day after the US was reported to have moved more warships and aircrafts to Persian Gulf.
Iran and the West are at odds over Tehran's nuclear ambitions and neither Israel nor the US have ruled out a military strike on the country if diplomacy fails to stop its nuclear programme.
Hajizadeh said the Guards also successfully test fired an anti-ship missile that could sink US warships in the Gulf. Gen Hajizadeh told state TV that the shore-to-sea ballistic missile, called "Persian Gulf," has a range of 300 kilometers.
State TV showed video of the launching of a white missile that hit a huge target in Gulf waters.
The US Navy's 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, an island in the Gulf about 200 kilometers from Iran, well within range of Iranian missiles.
With PTI inputs
First Published: Wednesday, July 04, 2012, 21:09