Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

    TEHRAN, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran's army is scheduled to stage war games in the central province of Fars on Tuesday morning, local Fars news agency reported on Monday.

    General Dawood Agha-Mohammadi, deputy commander of the army for education, was quoted as saying that the maneuvers, codenamed "Beitolmoghaddas 19," would also be attended by students and instructors of 17 ground force faculties.

    The general told Fars that the military exercises are aimed at marking the anniversary of the liberation of Iran's port city of Khorramshahr on May 24, 1982 during the Iran-Iraq war and will last for three days.

    The ground force educational strategies and doctrines will be exercised during the war games and a large number of army officers will practice theories to gain valuable technical, tactical and operational experiences, he added.

    According to Agha-Mohammadi, the maneuvers would comprise five different stages, including surface defense, night and day combat and anti-heliborne operations.

    During the maneuvers, the army will use new weapons innovated by Iranian experts, including anti-helicopter weapons, shoulder launchers and projectiles as well as different types of anti-armor weapons and explosives and new types of weaponry.

    All the participating units have already been deployed in the region, waiting for hour zero to start launching the war games,the general said.