By NBC News staff and wire reportsDUBAI - Iran launched large-scale air defense drills in the country's eastern half on Monday, Iranian media reported, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over a military incident in the Gulf reported last week.
The "Velayat-4" maneuvers being held this week will span a massive stretch in Iran's northeast, east, and southeast regions - about half its total land mass. The area is not far from its borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, where there are large concentrations of U.S. troops.
The week-long maneuvers will include about 8,000 troops, drawn both from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its regular military, several media outlets said.
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