Iran warns of ‘fiery response’ after US sent bombers to Middle East

The warning was made by Brigadier General Qader Rahimzadeh, second-in-command of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, on Saturday, Press TV reported.

On Thursday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that two of the US warplanes had been flown from Louisiana to the Middle East as on an alleged short-notice mission.

According to Commander Rahimzadeh, Iran’s airspace “is among our red lines and, as enemies have experienced in the past too, the smallest violation will be met with the [Iranian] air defense forces’ crushing and fiery response.”

Iran’s surveillance operations, he added, covers the entire range of movements that are carried out by the regional and transregional forces, including the bombers that were sent to fly more than 150 kilometers (93 miles) away from the country’s borders.

The American aircraft have been scrambled to the region following the late November assassination of senior Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh near Tehran.

The Islamic Republic has vowed to avenge the assassination, which was apparently an Israeli job. Several Iranian nuclear experts have been martyred so far in targeted killings that are linked to the Israeli regime.

The Iranian military official reminded that given the country's strategic position and back-to-back hostile actions that have been trying to target the Islamic establishment, the Islamic Republic's integrated air defense monitors the movements of manned and unmanned aircraft around the country under constant watch.

“The air defense analyzes these movements, and devises and implements proportional plans after learning about the enemies’ [potential] targets and behavior,” Rahimzadeh said.

He added certain regional countries were interested in recruiting other countries from inside or outside the region to supposedly ensure their own security.

This inclination, he noted, had led to some aerial maneuvering by certain regional countries outside Iran’s flight information region (FIR) over the Persian Gulf last week.

Rahimzadeh made the comments also after a senior US military official told NBC News that aircraft from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar had flown alongside the US bombers during portions of the flight.

Rahimzadeh reminded Iran’s neighbors that the country’s air defense keeps these activities under complete surveillance, too.

Source: Iran Daily