TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran kicked off military exercises Tuesday with a parade near its border with Afghanistan, where Tehran claims 47 Iranians are being detained.
About 70,000 Iranian soldiers were in Torbat-e Jam in northeastern Khorasan province for the three days of exercises -- the first maneuvers near the border since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran has accused the Taliban religious army, which controls most of Afghanistan, of detaining 11 Iranian diplomats, one journalist and 35 truck drivers.
The Taliban has said it knows nothing about the diplomats. It admits to holding about 30 Iranians, but alleges they were arming its opponents.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, told assembled troops that ''Iran will not tolerate foreign interference at its borders ... and will defend its territorial integrity,'' according to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.
However, a senior Iranian military official was quoted as saying the exercises were not related to the alleged detentions of Iranians, but were intended to test new weapons and strengthen Iran's defense
capabilities.
''The military exercises are not aimed for any invasion of neighboring Afghanistan,'' Brig. Gen. Hussein Salami told IRNA.
State-run Iranian television quoted Safavi as saying medium-range Sam-6 missiles would be used during the exercises. The broadcast was monitored by the BBC in London.
The actual military maneuvers, which begin Wednesday, involve ground and air troops from the Revolutionary Guard and the volunteer Basij Resistance Forces. The exercises are named ''Ashura 3'' for
the holiday marking the martyrdom of Shiite Islam's most revered figure, Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed.
Revolutionary Guards were deployed on the border with Afghanistan last week to monitor the civil war there, and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani said Iran might resort to force to free the Iranians.
Iran is suspected of backing the northern-based opposition to the Taliban, and Pakistan is widely believed to provide arms and other support to the Taliban. |
