Iran new drone bomber is 'messenger of death for the enemies of humanity'

BEIRUT — Iran unveiled an unmanned bomber jet Sunday that will probably fail to tip the region's strategic balance but suggests the country continues to shore up its conventional weapons capabilities.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking during annual Defense Industry Day ceremonies, described the Karrar drone as "a messenger of honor and human generosity" before also terming it a "messenger of death for the enemies of humanity."

The audience applauded and praised the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants as a sheet covering the olive-green aircraft was removed. A short video clip showed what was said to be the drone launching into the sky and firing a missile as martial music played.

Ahmadinejad, standing on a stage with Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi and others in military uniform, said the bomber is meant to be a deterrent against potential attacks.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Alizadeh, managing director of Iran's Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Company, told state television that the computer-operated Karrar could be adjusted to ranges of up to 180 miles, not enough to reach Israel, but more than enough to conduct surveillance over or launch strikes against U.S. ships and bases in the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. He claimed it could carry bombs of varying sizes and ranges that could strike at ships, communications installations, airports, bases and bridges.

The Karrar unveiling comes a day after Russian and Iranian technicians began the process of turning on Iran's first nuclear-power reactor and amid Tehran's ongoing tensions with the U.S. and its allies over its nuclear program.

Few military experts take Iran's boasts about its conventional military program seriously. Iran spends a little more than $10 billion on its military a year, less than Israel and a fraction of America's military budget. By Western standards, its forces performed miserably during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

But most defense analysts say that in case of a military confrontation Iran could more successfully employ guerrilla attacks by proxy forces to inflict mass casualties or draw the U.S. into a larger and draining conflict. Ahmadinejad said Sunday that if Israel ever attacked Iran, "the span of our reaction would be the entire planet Earth."

But the Karrar drone may serve more as a palliative to ease fears and boost the morale of Iranian citizens and military personnel worried about the increased talk of possible U.S. or Israeli airstrikes on Iran's nuclear sites. The drone has been in the works for seven or eight years, Alizadeh said, and won't "disturb the regional balance" until mass production is carried out successfully. At one point about three years ago, supreme leader Ali Khamenei visited the plant where it was being built, he said.

"I asked the leader to do a favor and pray for the drone," Alizadeh said. "He (Ayatollah Khamenei) stroked the head of the drone and said a prayer. Believe me, after that prayer, we all got a special energy."