Official: Iran can strike U.S. bases

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TEHRAN, July 4 (UPI) -- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is prepared to hit 35 U.S. facilities in the Middle East early in a possible attack, a corps leader said Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the corps' air force, said current missile war games practiced targeting a hypothetical enemy air base that is a replica of U.S. bases in the region, the government-backed Fars news agency reported.

"We have thought of measures to set up bases and deploy missiles to destroy all these bases in the early minutes after an attack," Hajizadeh said of contingency plans for any potential confrontation with the United States.

He said all of the 35 U.S. installations in the region "are within the reach of our missiles."

He said lands in dispute between Palestinian and Israeli leaders "are good targets for us as well."

On Tuesday, the IRGC air force began missile war games, firing short-, mid- and long-range missiles from facilities across the country at a lone target in central Iran, Fars said.

Iran's military officials have warned that if it was attacked by either the United States or Israel, the country would target all U.S. bases in the Middle East and close the economically strategic Strait of Hormuz.