Iran, Russia and China on Friday began a joint naval drill in the Indian Ocean aimed at boosting marine security, state media reported.

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Iran's state TV said 11 of its vessels were joined by three Russian ships including a destroyer, and two Chinese vessels. Iran's Revolutionary Guard will also participate with smaller ships and helicopters.

The report said the maneuvers would cover some 17,000 square kilometers, or 10,600 miles, in the Indian Ocean's north, and include night fighting, rescue operations and firefighting drills.

This is the third joint naval drill between the countries since 2019. It coincided with a recent visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Russia that ended on Thursday.

"Improving bilateral relations between Tehran and Moscow will enhance security for the region and the international arena," Raisi said upon returning from Russia on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Tehran has sought to step up military cooperation with Beijing and Moscow amid regional tensions with the United States. Visits to Iran by Russian and Chinese naval representatives have also increased in recent years.

Iran has been holding regular military drills in recent months, as attempts to revive its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers flounder.

Russia is also at loggerheads with the US and the West over its neighbor Ukraine, where it has sent some 100,000 troops that Washington, Kiev and their allies fear will be used to invade the country.

Russia on Thursday announced sweeping naval maneuvers in multiple areas involving the bulk of its naval potential − over 140 warships and more than 60 aircraft − to last through February. The exercises will be in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the northeastern Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, in addition to the joint exercise with Iran in the Indian Ocean.

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The more time passes since recent attacks on western-owned ships, the more fingers are pointing at Iran and its ayatollah regime as responsible. Meanwhile, there is growing demand that Iran be forced to pay a price.

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One of these voices is Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp, formerly of the British Army, who is calling for a harsh response to Iran.

In an interview to Israel Hayom, Kemp says that nations "keeping their head down" when it comes to Iran, or demonstrating weakness, is merely "asking for trouble."

This approach, Kemp says, will only lead to increased aggression. The only way to win, he say, is to increase the advantage against Iran.

Kemp served for nearly 30 years in the British Army, starting as an infantry solider and earning promotion until he was put in charge of the British forces in Afghanistan in 2003. He then joined the committee that supervised the country's intelligence services. He was discharged in 2006.

Kemp thinks that western nations could respond to the deaths of a British and a Romanian citizen in the attack on the Israeli-operated Mercer Street ship off the coast of Oman in a few different ways. He says the most "appropriate" would be to send in special forces or carry out airstrikes against the parties responsible for the attack on the vessel, or against drone manufacturing facilities.

A cyber action would also be a possibility, he says.

Approximately a week ago, chief of the British Defense Staff Gen. Nick Carter was asked about the issue in an interview to the BBC, and he said that "ultimately, we have got to restore deterrence."

Kemp says that "restoring deterrence" does not mean summoning ambassadors to making stringent statements at the UN, or even applying sanctions – it means a "military action to prevent future attacks by the ayatollahs."

In that context, Kemp says that no matter what decision is taken about a response, it needs to be stronger than the Iranian attack on the Mercer Street, and be executed quickly. "It will require specific intelligence, and there's no doubt Israel can help," he points out.

However, Kemp is unsure that Britain will take the lead in any action against the Iranian regime or new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. He says that in the 2000s, he took part in meetings with British government functionaries to weigh how to respond to a few cases of British soldiers being murdered in Iraq by proxy forces that were deployed and armed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

"I recommended a military response against them, inside Iran. Instead, fingers were pointed at Iranian diplomats, and the killing continued," Kemp says.

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Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards unveiled an underground missile base at an undisclosed Persian Gulf location on Friday, Iranian state media reported, at a time of heightened tension between Tehran and the United States.

"The base is one of several bases housing the navy's strategic missiles," state media quoted IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, as saying.

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Last year, the Guards said Iran had built underground "missile cities" along the Gulf coastline, warning of a "nightmare for Iran's enemies."

"These missiles have ranges of hundreds of kilometers, enjoy pinpoint accuracy and huge destructive power, and can overcome the enemy's electronic warfare equipment," Salami said.

There have been periodic confrontations in the Gulf in recent years between the Guards and the US military, which has accused the Guards' navy of sending fast attack craft to harass US warships as they pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Tensions have been high between Tehran and Washington since 2018, when US President Donald Trump exited the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers aimed at limiting the Islamic Republic's nuclear program and re-imposed sanctions that have crippled the country's economy.

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The targets are being used in drills designed to simulate fighting in populated urban areas.

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In June, a report from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs revealed that the IRGC was actively working to arm various terrorist organizations in Judea and Samaria, with the hope of sparking fresh hostilities against Israel.

Former IRGC commander Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said on Quds Day (May 31) that support for the Palestinians was a fundamental principle of the Islamic Revolution, and would continue until the "Zionist regime" was eliminated. Safavi praised the upgraded weapons the Palestinians have been using and stressed that the "blessed" process of procuring advanced weaponry was still underway.

In April, Trump designated the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization, the first time the US formally labeled another country's military a terrorist group.

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Reports said that the strikes included about 10 separate sorties that targeted military infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

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The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency initially reported that four civilians were killed and over 20 injured in the strikes near Damascus, which it characterized as "Zionist aggression."

Initials reports mentioned that several massive blasts had been noted in the capital. Later, Syrian state TV issued a message that Syrian army anti-aircraft defenses had "confronted hostile missiles launched by Israeli warplanes."

The SANA report said the strikes had begun at midnight between Sunday and Monday and had damaged several civilian homes in the Sahnaya neighborhood of Damascus. SANA reported that several civilians had been slightly injured.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog reported that several Syrian army soldiers were rushed to hospitals following the strikes, which it said targeted a research and development center for weapons and a military airport.

Meanwhile, media outlets aligned with the rebel forces in Syria reported that targets of the overnight strikes included the First Division of the Syrian Army where – according to claims – personnel from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as members of Shiite militias supported by Iran are headquartered.

Meanwhile, an unidentified object that may have been a stray missile crashed north of the Cypriot capital Nicosia early on Monday, but no one was hurt, Turkish Cypriot officials said.

The explosion occurred around 1 a.m. in the region of Tashkent, also known as Vouno, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Nicosia.

Mustafa Akinci, the Turkish Cypriot leader, linked the incident to military operations in the Middle East but further investigations were underway by the military to establish what it was, he said.

"It is evident it is not something stemming from our soil. … It is one of the bad sides of the war in the region falling into our country," he said.

Officials were studying debris at the crash site, said Kudret Özersay, the foreign minister of Northern Cyprus, a breakaway state recognized only by Turkey.

"Initial findings indicate the object that caused the explosion was either an aircraft carrying explosives or a direct explosive [missile]. The writings and signs on the debris will allow us to understand exactly what happened soon," Özersay said.

If verified, it would be the first time that Cyprus has been caught up in military operations in the Middle East despite its proximity to the region.

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