Iran Issues ‘Battlefield’ Warning as US Deploys Troops

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned on Saturday that any country that attacks the Islamic republic will see its territory turn into the conflict’s “main battlefield”.

“Be careful, a limited aggression will not remain limited. We are after punishment and we will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor,” Guards commander Hossein Salami said.

Tensions escalated between arch-foes Iran and the United States after last weekend’s attacks on Saudi energy giant Aramco’s Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oilfield halved the kingdom’s oil output.

Salami was speaking at Tehran’s Islamic Revolution and Holy Defence museum during the unveiling of an exhibition of what Iran says are US and other drones captured in its territory.

It featured a badly damaged drone with US military markings said to be an RQ-4 Global Hawk that Iran downed in June, as well as an RQ-170 Sentinel captured in 2011 and still intact.

The Guards also displayed the domestically manufactured Khordad 3 air defence battery they say was used to shoot down the Global Hawk.