Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova, AzerNews Staff Writer

Iran's Navy on Tuesday conducted special mining exercises in the Caspian Sea, Mehr news agency reported.

The exercises were held in the presence of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran's city of Nowshahr. Khamenei visited the northern coastal city on Tuesday to watch naval cadets practice planting mines.

Apart from mining drills, the exercises included tasks on protecting borders and waters of the country, as well as hypothetical destruction of small boats via air strikes.

The mine-planting exercises in the Caspian Sea came right after the mine-clearing exercises in the Persian Gulf, which were joined by 30 countries, including the United States.

The U.S. military is calling the anti-mine maneuvers the most widely attended international naval exercise ever held in the Middle East.

The exercises come amid rising regional tensions over Iran's controversial nuclear program and a fresh warning from the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-third of the world's traded oil passes, would be a legitimate target in the event of conflict.

Meanwhile, Khamenei on Tuesday signed an order for the release of a submarine and a frigate.

Iran has released new military submarine Tareq 901 into waters in the Bandar Abbas port, IRINN TV channel reported.

Tareq 901 is a three Kilo class, Russian type 877EKM submarine which was delivered to the Iranian Navy from 1992 to 1997.

Iran's submarine force currently consists of Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines (Tareq 901, Noor 902, Yunes 903), one 500-ton Nahang and four 120-ton Yono-class (also referred to as Qadir or Ghadir-class) midget submarines.

Iran also released Sahand frigate into waters. Sahand, a British-made Vosper Mark V class frigate (also known as Alvand class frigate), was commissioned as part of a four-ship order.