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A combo of pictures shows (left) a handout image released by Iranian daily Jamejam online edition on July 10, 2008, showing three missiles rising into the air while a fourth remains in the launcher on the ground during a test-firing in an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert, and (right) the same image released by the news website and public relations arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Sepah News, apparently digitally altered to replace the grounded missile and launcher with a fourth successfull
Photo: AFP

The state-run Iranian channel Al-Alam said the missiles test-fired by the Revolutionary Guards included a Shahab-3 with a one-tonne conventional warhead and a range of 2,000km.

But Fitzpatrick, a former US State Department official, said: "In terms of capability, they claimed the Shahab-3 could travel 2,000km carrying a one-tonne warhead. This is very unlikely.

"The Shahab-3 normally has a range of 1300km and the range can be extended to 2000km but it would require a much lighter warhead.

"This is typical of Iran to exaggerate the accomplishments of the missiles and its nuclear program."

Several experts on photography agreed that the photograph had been manipulated.

"It's a doctored image," said Gerard Issert, a technician at Granon, one of the largest photo laboratories in Paris.

"Although the missiles weren't all equidistant from the camera, they're the same size in the picture," Issert told AFP in the southern French city of Arles.

A defiant Iran test-fired more missiles today, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Tehran that Washington had beefed up its security presence in the Gulf and would not hesitate to defend Israel and other allies in the region.

The United States believes Iran is covertly developing nuclear weapons, a claim denied by the Islamic republic which insists the purpose of its program is energy.

Source: AFP