New Delhi: In a dramatic escalation that has surprised the world, Iran attempted two missile strikes on a US-UK joint military base in the Indian Ocean—Diego Garcia—revealing a new capability.
While one missile failed mid-air, another was shot down by an American warship using SM-3, The Wall Street Journal reported.
What has raised alarm in defence establishments around the world is the revelation, for the first time, that Iran possesses intermediate-range ballistic missiles capable of striking targets beyond the Gulf.
Diego Garcia is located roughly 3,800 to 4,000 kilometres from Iran and is far beyond the publicly stated range of the Iranian missile arsenal. Earlier, Iranian officials had claimed that their missiles are limited to around 2,000 kilometres.
Diego Garcia is a critical US base and houses a number of bombers, nuclear submarines and several surface warships.
The strike towards the strategic Indian Ocean base also risks expanding the scope of the ongoing war which has so far been limited to just the one region.
The attempted strike came hours after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorised the US to use key British-linked bases, including Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford, to launch operations targeting Iranian-linked positions near the Strait of Hormuz.
Only last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that Iran had deliberately capped its missile range at 2,000 kilometers.
Iran Watch, a nuclear arms monitoring group, has long assessed that Iran possesses operational missiles capable of reaching 4,000 kilometers.
Israel’s Alma Research and Education Center had earlier put the top range for Iranian missiles at around 3,000 kilometers but said there are reports of their weapons being developed with longer ranges.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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