Iran Army Trains for Electronic Warfare, Simulates Air Attacks

Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi and General Habibollah Sayyari inaugurate the electronic warfare exercises. (Iranian state TV)
Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi and General Habibollah Sayyari inaugurate the electronic warfare exercises. (Iranian state TV)
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Iran Army Trains for Electronic Warfare, Simulates Air Attacks

Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi and General Habibollah Sayyari inaugurate the electronic warfare exercises. (Iranian state TV)
Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi and General Habibollah Sayyari inaugurate the electronic warfare exercises. (Iranian state TV)

The Iranian army kicked off electronic warfare drills, simulating combat conditions and air attacks by fighter jets, drones, and helicopters.

Iranian media showed video footage of Iranian army commander-in-chief Abdolrahim Mousavi and deputy chief for coordination General Habibollah Sayyari at the command center of the electronic warfare drills.

They were seen communicating with army commanders via a television network before the launch of the drills, codenamed “Shield of the State’s Guardians.”

The Army's Public Relations Department said the exercises include electronic support operations for fighter jets and drones and testing electronic defense systems against drones.

Reuters quoted state television as saying that units of the naval, ground, and air forces, as well as air defenses, participated in the exercises in the largely desert central region in central Iran.

The drills featured locally-made radars, drones, manned and unmanned combat jets, micro aerial vehicles, and other military equipment.

State-run English Press TV quoted Sayyari as saying the army has the appropriate infrastructure and has achieved favorable results in countering threats in today’s world and predicting future threats in this sensitive and complicated arena.

Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of international sanctions and embargoes that bar it from importing many weapons.

Western military analysts say Iran sometimes exaggerates its weapons capabilities.

On Tuesday, Tehran announced the manufacture of an advanced, domestically-made drone called “Mohajer-10,” with an enhanced range and flight duration, with a greater payload-carrying capacity.

The United States accuses Iran of providing Russia with the Mohajer-6 drones, among other drones, since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine, which Tehran denies.



Ukraine Says It Captured 2 North Korean Soldiers Fighting for Russia

This undated handout photograph released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on January 11, 2025 shows an alleged North Korean soldier lying in a cell at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This undated handout photograph released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on January 11, 2025 shows an alleged North Korean soldier lying in a cell at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
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Ukraine Says It Captured 2 North Korean Soldiers Fighting for Russia

This undated handout photograph released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on January 11, 2025 shows an alleged North Korean soldier lying in a cell at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This undated handout photograph released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on January 11, 2025 shows an alleged North Korean soldier lying in a cell at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)

Ukraine’s forces have captured two North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, the first such claim by Kyiv since North Korea sent thousands of troops to shore up Moscow's war effort on the other side of the world.

Zelenskyy made the comments days after Ukraine, facing a slow Russian onslaught in the east, began pressing new attacks in Kursk to retain ground captured in a lightning incursion in August — the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II.

Moscow’s counterattack has left Ukrainian forces outstretched and demoralized, killing and wounding thousands and retaking more than 40% of the 984 square kilometers (380 square miles) of Kursk Ukraine had seized.

“Our soldiers have captured North Korean soldiers in Kursk. These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived, were taken to Kyiv, and are communicating” with Ukrainian security services, Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

He shared photos of two men resting on cots in a room with bars over the windows. Both wore bandages, one around his jaw and the other around both hands and wrists.

Zelenskyy said capturing the soldiers alive was “not easy.” He asserted that Russian and North Korean forces fighting in Kursk have tried to conceal the presence of North Korean soldiers, including by killing wounded comrades on the battlefield to avoid their capture and interrogation by Kyiv.

Ukraine's security service SBU on Saturday said one of the soldiers had no documents at all, while the other had been carrying a Russian military ID card in the name of a man from Tuva, a Russian region bordering Mongolia.

According to the SBU, one of the soldiers claimed he had been told he was going to Russia for training, rather than to fight against Ukraine. He said his combat unit, made up of North Koreans, only received one week of training alongside Russian troops before being sent to the front.

A senior Ukrainian military official said last month that a couple hundred North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk have been killed or wounded in battle.

Ukraine estimates that 10,000 to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia. The White House and Pentagon said the North Korean forces have been battling on the front lines in largely infantry positions. They have been fighting with Russian units and, in some cases, independently around Kursk.

Its full-scale invasion three years ago left Russia holding a fifth of Ukraine, and Zelenskyy has hinted that he hopes controlling Kursk will help force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war. But multiple Ukrainian and Western officials in Kyiv last month told The Associated Press that they fear gambling on Kursk will weaken the whole 1000-kilometer (621-mile) front line, and Ukraine is losing precious ground in the east.