The president did not identify the UAVs but
said they flew at an extremely high altitude.
Over the last two years, Teheran has reported the intrusion of UAVs from
Iraq into Iranian air space. In late 2008, Israel and the United States were
said to have intensified intelligence collection of Iran's missile and
nuclear sites.
The February launch marked the first satellite sent by Iran into space
orbit. The Safir SLV was said to have been a variant of Iran's Shihab-3B
intermediate-range ballistic missile, which could travel more than 2,000
kilometers.
Ahmadinejad said the SLV, which carried the experimental satellite, was
launched by a backup system.
At one point, the president said, the Iranian Air Force was ordered to
fire air-to-air missiles toward the UAVs. But he said, without elaboration,
that no missiles were fired.
