The Iranian Revolutionary Guard bombed a model of an American aircraft carrier with missiles during military exercises that began today in the Gulf waters, at a time of escalating tension between Tehran and Washington.
Video footage of the maneuvers - broadcast on state television - showed the Revolutionary Guard air and naval forces preparing to launch an offensive off the coast in the southwest of the country.
And during the maneuvers - dubbed "The Great Messenger 14 ″" - speed boats appeared as they sailed within a specific formation, before the ground forces fired artillery shells, while a missile was launched from a helicopter.
The footage showed a model of the American Nimitz aircraft carrier, with rows of fighter planes on either side of the runway.
Another missile was fired from a helicopter, leaving smoke, apparently before it collided with the end of the fake warship.
And then it was seen members of the armed forces landing on its surface, before being surrounded by about 10 speed boats.
"What was shown today in these exercises - at the air and naval level - was all offensive," Revolutionary Guards commander Major General Hussein Salami told state television.
"The last stage of the training is taking place with the participation of the Naval and Air Guard forces, which started on land, air, sea and space ... in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf," the Fars News Agency said.
The Revolutionary Guards said - in a statement quoted by Fars - that its navy and air forces would use "missiles, drones and radar units" in the exercises.
Sporadic confrontations
In recent years, limited sporadic confrontations have occurred in the Gulf between the Revolutionary Guards and the US military, which accused the Revolutionary Guards navy of sending rapid attack boats to harass American warships while crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran opposes the presence of the American and Western navies in the Gulf, and conducts annual naval exercises in stages in the waterway, through which about 30% of the total trade of crude oil and other oil-borne liquids pass by sea.
Tensions between Iran and the United States escalated in 2018, when US President Donald Trump announced his country's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and reimposed sanctions that drastically cut Tehran's oil exports.
Tensions increased between the two sides after the killing of the commander of the Quds Force, General Qassem Soleimani, with a raid carried out by a US plane that marched near Baghdad airport in January.
One of the last confrontations took place in mid-April, when the United States accused the Revolutionary Guards of using speedboats to harass its warships in the Gulf.