TEHRAN, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran's army on Saturday launched the main phase of a large-scale joint military drill across the country's southern coastline and waters, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The exercise, codenamed "Zolfaqar 1403," is being held across the Makran coastline in southern Iran, Sea of Oman and the northern part of the Indian Ocean, extending to the 10-degree latitude, the report said.
It involves infantry, armored, mechanized, air defense, naval as well as surface and sub-surface units, according to the Fars report.
On Friday, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, deputy chief of the Iranian army for coordination and the commander of the drill, said that the main phase would feature part of the combat capabilities of the army's ground, air and air defense forces as well as Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, or the unified combatant command headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces, according to a report by the official news agency IRNA.
Sayyari said that during the exercise, new tactics would be employed by the army's younger generation, with new, smart and surgical-strike weapons, ammunition and missiles to be tested.
He said that in the drill, special attention would be paid to operations in the areas of electronic warfare, cyber, unmanned vehicles, drones and modern technologies. ■
