Iran calls new bomber aircraft 'ambassador of death'

TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated Iran's first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft Sunday, calling it an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies.

The 4-meter-long drone aircraft can carry as many as four cruise missiles and will have a range of 620 miles, according to a state TV report.

"The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship," said Ahmadinejad at the inauguration ceremony, which fell on the national day for the country's defense industries.

The goal of the aircraft, named Karrar, or striker, is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that it is for deterrence and defensive purposes. He championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation."

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo and now produces its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and even a fighter plane.

State TV showed video footage later of the plane taking off from a launching pad and reported that the craft traveled at speeds of 560 mph and could alternatively be armed with two 250-pound bombs or a 450-pound guided bomb.

The ceremony came a day after Iran began to fuel its first nuclear power reactor, with the help of Russia, amid international concerns over the possibility of a military dimension to its nuclear program. Iran insists it is interested only in generating electricity from the nuclear reactor.

Meanwhile, in a television interview that aired Sunday, Ahmadinejad offered friendship to the United States but also taunted Washington by saying he does not fear an attack by the United States because it could not even defeat a small army in Iraq.

"There are no logical reasons for the United States to carry out such an act," Ahmadinejad told Al-Jazeera, according to an Arabic translation of the interview in Farsi. "Do you believe an army that has been defeated by a small army in Iraq can enter into a war with a large and well-trained army like the Iranian army?" he said, referring to the insurgents in Iraq.

He said Washington lacks real motives for attacking Iran and will not benefit from hostility. "The friendship of Iran is much better than its hostility," he said.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this month that the U.S. military has a plan to attack Iran, although he thinks a military strike is probably a bad idea. Still, he said the risk of Iran's developing a nuclear weapon is unacceptable and he reiterated that "the military option" remains on the table.