Commander: Iran to Modernize Border Monitoring System
Commander of the Iranian Border Guards Units General Hossein Zolfaqari underlined that his forces will be equipped with modern monitoring system.
“Border monitoring system will be deployed in border regions after the parliament allocates the needed budget,” General Zolfaqari told reporters on the sidelines of Eqtedar (Might) 3 border guards exercises in the Western province of Kermanshah on Wednesday.
He noted that border monitoring systems will help better control border conditions and movements, and “through the online observation of the borders, the border checkpoints will be notified in case of having a weakness (in their performance).”
General Zolfaqari also added that once the monitoring systems are stationed, electronic watch towers will be set up along the borders as well.
Earlier in the day, Zolfaqari said that his forces have tested new weapons and reconnaissance balloons in their four-day-long exercises in the Western parts of the country.
“We have used the new weapons in different scenarios and in various time frames,” General Zolfaqari told reporters.
He pointed to using two reconnaissance balloons in the drills, and said, “The balloons took photos from the entire region in a bid to study all the movements in drill zone.”
He reiterated that all possible scenarios were considered and the weapons were used in different face-to-face combat situations during the drills.
The Iranian border guards started the four-day exercises in the Western parts of the country on Sunday.
The wargames were staged in the four provinces of Kermanshah, Khouzestan, Ilam, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan in Qasr-e Shirin general wargames zone.
During the drills, participating units have been acquainted with new trainings, weapons, tactics and methods to fight terrorism and drug trafficking, military officials said on Saturday.
Different bulletproof vehicles, drones and advanced military cameras are being used in the exercises, many of them for testing purposes.
On Saturday, Commander of the Iranian Border Guards Units General Hossein Zolfaqari said that the drills would start in Qasr-e Shirin general wargames zone on April 13 and will continue for four days, adding that some 4,000 border guards would take part in the exercises in Western Iran.
“The wargames will be staged to enhance the border guards’ power in confronting threats,” he added.
Zolfaqari said that improvement of the border guards’ level of coordination and cooperation with other Armed Forces and the population residing in the bordering areas, testing state-of-the-art equipment, including drones, cameras, balloons and bulletproof vehicles, as well as displaying the might and power of the border guards are among other objectives of the drills.
Five Iranian border guards were abducted by a terrorist group in early February. Four of them were freed after two months, while the fate of the fifth one is not clear yet. Jeish Al-Adl group, responsible for the terrorist operation, has claimed that it has killed the soldier, but Tehran says it will not accept it unless his body is returned to Iran or irrefutable evidence is presented to substantiate the claim.
