Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Friday they had fired three new types of land-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles on the second day of 'Great Prophet 2' military exercises in Gulf waters, state television reported.
It showed footage of missile launches and targets being hit, and said Iran has also boosted the range of these missiles, enabling them to hit potential targets anywhere in the Gulf region and in the Sea of Oman.
The new missiles had been designated Nur, Kowsar and Nasr, state television added. "We have improved the range of our missiles which has been boosted from 120 kilometres (74 miles) to 170 kilometres (105 miles); this will bring the entire Persian Gulf from the Straits of Hormuz and most of the Sea of Oman within range," it quoted Revolutionary Guards deputy naval chief General Ali Fadavi as saying.
"In previous years, when American and British forces entered Iranian territorial waters in the northern Persian Gulf we captured them," Fadavi added.
"Today we tightly control all of the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman region, and no movement can escape our control."
In June 2004 the Revolutionary Guards captured eight British servicemen deployed in Iraq and held them for three days.
They were seized from three patrol vessels on the Shatt al-Arab waterway, down the middle of which runs the Iraq-Iran border.
The Guards also captured important British communications equipment and some weapons.
Launching the war games on Thursday, Iran said it fired its longer-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile for the first time amid a mounting stand-off with the West over its nuclear program.
The 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 military maneuvers in the central desert, state television reported.
"Shahab missiles, carrying cluster warheads, with a range of 2,000 kilometres, were fired from the desert near (Iran's clerical capital) Qom," it said.
"Dozens of Shahab-2 and -3, Zolfaghar-73, Scud B, Fath-110 and Zelzal have been launched in the presence of (Guards chief) General Yahya Rahim Safavi, and other high-ranking commanders," the television report said.
"The cluster head of the Shahab-2 has the capability to disperse 1,400 bomblets with great destructive power."
Commanders had said on Thursday they would also be employing other "new equipment" during the war games.