In Pictures: Iranian war games in the Gulf

[웃 910]

In Pictures: Iranian war games in the Gulf

Foes trade barbs in escalating spat in Strait of Hormuz between the US and the Islamic Republic.

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  Sayari points at a map of the region where Iranian submarines, surface-to-sea missile systems, missile-launching vessels, torpedoes and drones will be tested [Reuters]

  
  

  
  

  
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  Military personnel place a flag on a submarine during the Velayat-90 war games in the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway through which one-third of the world's oil flows [Reuters]

  
  

  
  

  
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  Iranian navy members take positions during a drill, as the row escalated over the potential consequences of sanctions imposed on Iran's crude exports over its nuclear ambitions. Iran's navy chief warned that his country could easily close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf [AP]

  
  

  
  

  
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  An Iranian Army soldier stands guard on a military speed boat, passing by a submarine. Iran can disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz but probably cannot completely shut down the world's most important oil route, many military analysts say [AFP]

  
  

  
  

  
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  Trying to close the strait would likely bring down a powerful military response on Iran from US forces in the Gulf [AFP]

  
  

  
  

  
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  State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday that Iran had exhibited "irrational behaviour" by threatening to close the strait [Reuters]

  
  

  
  

  
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  Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, told the Fars news agency that "our response to threats is threats" [Reuters]

  
  

  
  

  
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  A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said that the US was not in a position to tell Tehran "what to do in the Strait of Hormuz", Iranian state television reported. The US Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet is active in the area, as are warships of several other countries that patrol for pirates there [AFP]

  
  

  

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• The USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier is seen as it allegedly went "inside the manoeuvre zone" where Iranian ships are conducting war games in the Gulf. A showdown between Iran and the US worsened with warships from each side giving weight to an increasingly bellicose exchange of words [AFP]

  
  

  
  

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  "Closing the Strait of Hormuz for Iran's armed forces is really easy ... or as Iranians say it will be easier than drinking a glass of water," Iran's navy chief Habibollah Sayyari told Iran's English language Press TV [Reuters]

  
  

  

[slim 1,530]

So the Iranian navy wears ACU? I wonder who got the kickback on that one!

My buddy in our navy says the Iranians have so many fast-attack boats we can't possibly shoot them all before the ships are overwhelmed. It'd be akin to the human wave attacks we faced in Korea. Keep in mind, these are the same folks who find it honorable to become shahid during battle. There are no official numbers, but they lost something like A MILLION MEN during the Iran/Iraq war. If it was that big a deal to fight those guys you can only imagine how great it would be for them to fight us.

We need to be very, very, VERY careful how we deal with Iran. They're not some backwards, stoneaged, uneducated, illiterate sand people the media makes them out to be. A war with them will not be like a war with the Taliban or even the Iraqis. It will be like WWIII. Keep that in mind next time you watch the presidential debates and they talk about tough policies and heavy-handedness in dealing with Iran.

[웃 910]

So the Iranian navy wears ACU? I wonder who got the kickback on that one!

My buddy in our navy says the Iranians have so many fast-attack boats we can't possibly shoot them all before the ships are overwhelmed. It'd be akin to the human wave attacks we faced in Korea. Keep in mind, these are the same folks who find it honorable to become shahid during battle. There are no official numbers, but they lost something like A MILLION MEN during the Iran/Iraq war. If it was that big a deal to fight those guys you can only imagine how great it would be for them to fight us.

We need to be very, very, VERY careful how we deal with Iran. They're not some backwards, stoneaged, uneducated, illiterate sand people the media makes them out to be. A war with them will not be like a war with the Taliban or even the Iraqis. It will be like WWIII. Keep that in mind next time you watch the presidential debates and they talk about tough policies and heavy-handedness in dealing with Iran.

Ron Paul disagrees with everything you just said.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Iran lost a million men to Iraq, they are backwards Slim, with high tech equipment, but still backwards. Still I agree it would likely suck to go to war with them.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

What are all the fast attack boats going to do to a couple hundred planes bombing them?

[Pooky 3,806]

What are all the fast attack boats going to do to a couple hundred planes bombing them?

Planes would be a waste. Use the 30mm point defence Phalanx systems instead. Save the F/A-18s for something bigger.

[lostinblue 1,989]

The problem is any hint of a war zone with mines and no one will insure a tanker. Then all the tankers sit in port.