TEHRAN: Iran has drones capable of flying 7,000 kilometres (more than 4,000 miles), the commander of its Revolutionary Guard force said Sunday. “We have drones which can fly 7,000 kilometres, without a pilot, and land back at the same spot or anywhere else,” General Hossein Salami said in a speech broadcast by state television.

He gave no other details but the new drone would give it a range of 3,500 kilometres, compared to 2,000 kilometres for Iran’s “Gaza” combat drone unveiled earlier this year. The “Gaza” drone was reportedly the longest-ranging Iranian drone so far. Iran’s air force is mostly made up of ageing US fighters bought under the rule of the shah toppled in 1979 for which maintenance has been hit by American sanctions. It has relied instead on developing drones, which the Revolutionary Guard said were used in a July 2019 raid on Iranian Kurdish rebels across the border in Iraq.