Iran’s military tested new attack drones in the coastal area of the Gulf of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz Saturday as part of its ongoing annual drill, state TV reported. Meanwhile, antigovernment protests underway for over three months continued. Videos on social media showed protests in Tehran’s grand bazaar and several cities and towns including in the Kurdish area. Part of Tehran’s bazaar closed in the wake of the protests which authorities cracked down on. State TV said the Ababil-5 attack drone was used during wargames for the first time and successfully hit its target with a bomb after traveling 400 kilometers (250 miles). Iran has tested many other military drones over the past decade. The military drones have been a point of contention between Iran and the United States and its allies, which claim Tehran is supplying Moscow with drones that have been used in attacks in West-backed Ukraine. In November, Iran acknowledged it has supplied Russia with drones, adding that the supply came before Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Iran says it is committed to stopping the conflict. Read more: White House: Iran set to deliver armed drones to Russia The Strait of Hormuz is located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and is crucial to global energy supplies, with about a fifth of all oil traded at sea passing through it. Commandos and airborne infantry participated in the wargames, dubbed “Zolfaghar-1401,” along with fighter jets, helicopters, military transport aircraft and submarines. Iran’s military will fire missiles and air defense systems as well. Iran regularly holds such drills to improve its defensive power and test weapons. Since mid-September, Iran has been shaken by antigovernment protests which were ignited by the death of a woman who was detained by the country’s morality police. The demonstrations rapidly escalated into calls for an end to more than four decades of the country’s clerical rule. Read more: Iranian troops in Crimea supporting Russian drone attacks, says US More than 500 protesters have been killed and over 18,500 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has closely monitored the unrest. Iranian authorities have not released figures for those killed or arrested.

The largest ship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances, semiofficial news agencies reported. The Fars and Tasnim news agencies said efforts failed to save the support ship Kharg, named after the island that serves as the main oil terminal for Iran. Read: Iran successfully tests domestic coronavirus vaccine on humans The blaze began around 2:25 a.m. and firefighters tried to contain it, Fars said. The vessel sank near the Iranian port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers (790 miles) southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. Photos circulated on Iranian social media of sailors wearing life jackets evacuating the vessel as a fire burned behind them. State TV and semiofficial news agencies referred to the Kharg as a “training ship.” Fars published video of thick, black smoke rising from the ship early Wednesday morning. Satellite photos from Planet Labs Inc. analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Kharg off to the west of Jask on Tuesday. Satellites from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that track fires from space detected a blaze at the site of the Jask that started just before the time of the fire reported by Fars. Read: Iran a key topic as US envoy Blinken meets UK counterpart The Kharg serves as one of a few vessels in the Iranian navy capable of providing replenishment at sea for its other ships. It also can lift heavy cargo and serve as a launch point for helicopters. The ship, built in Britain and launched in 1977, entered the Iranian navy in 1984 after lengthy negotiations that followed Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials offered no cause for the fire aboard the Kharg. However, it comes after a series of mysterious explosions that began in 2019 targeting ships in the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. Navy later accused Iran of targeting the ships with limpet mines, timed explosives typically attached by divers to a vessel’s hull. Read: US Navy fires warning shots in new tense encounter with Iran Iran denied targeting the vessels, though U.S. Navy footage showed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard removing one unexploded limpet mine from a vessel. The incidents came amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. The sinking of the Kharg marks the latest naval disaster for Iran. In 2020 during an Iranian military training exercise, a missile mistakenly struck a naval vessel near the port of Jask, killing19 sailors and wounding 15. Also in 2018, an Iranian navy destroyer sank in the Caspian Sea.