Iran holds a military parade to mark the 42nd anniversary of the 8-year war with Iraq

Tehran, Iranian armed forces held a military parade to mark the 42nd anniversary of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war beginning in 1980.

During the military parade on Thursday in the capital Tehran, Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, said Iran favors a region free from threats and full of friendship and cooperation in West Asia, calling the US a threat to the security of the region, Xinhua news agency reported, citing IRNA. The parade comes at the beginning of Defense Week, the one-week Iranian commemoration of the Iraq-Iran war. Also on Thursday, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force unveiled for the first time a new prototype of its "Sevom-e Khordad" air defense missile system which has a range of 200 km.