Iran Holds Naval Drills amid Increasing Tensions with US

Iranian state TV said that its navy began on Thursday, a three-day exercise in the Sea of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz; the maneuvers taking place amid heightened tensions between the Islamic Republic and the U.S.

The military said on its official website that one of the exercise's objectives is to devise "tactical offensive and defensive strategies for safeguarding the country's territorial waters and shipping lanes", according to France 24 website.

"The navy will test-fire surface-to-surface and shore-to-sea cruise missiles and torpedoes, and rocket-launching systems fitted on warships, submarines, aircraft and drones," Iranian military statement added.

Units from the navy and air force and ground forces are participating in the exercise dubbed "Zolfaghar 99".

Drills will be held over two million square kilometres (772,000 square miles) of sea stretching from the northern part of the Indian Ocean to the eastern end of the Strait of Hormuz, the sensitive shipping lane from the Gulf through which a fifth of world oil output passes.

The exercise's spokesman, Commodore Shahram Irani, told the armed forces' website that foreign aircraft, especially US drones, had been warned to clear the area for the drills, pointing that the US aircraft had since left the area.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have deepened since the American President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement with Tehran in 2018, and imposed crippling economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Their tensions deepened after a US drone strike killed in January, top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani outside Baghdad airport, prompting Iran to retaliate with missile strikes against American forces in neighbouring Iraq.

Last month, U.S. Central Command published a black-and-white video showing what appeared to be Iranian special forces fast-roping from a helicopter onto the oil tanker MT Wila, whose last position appeared to be off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates near the city of Khorfakkan.

Iranian state television later acknowledged the brief seizure, referring to the operation as a routine inspection without elaborating, according to the Associated Press.