TEHRAN: A commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that air defense forces would “annihilate” Israeli warplanes if they attacked the republic, as the forces began five days of war games.

The maneuvers are aimed at practicing responses to simulated attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities.

“Their (Israeli) F-15 and F-16 fighters will be trapped by our air defense forces and will be annihilated,” Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Guards’ air force wing, told the Fars news agency.

“Even if their planes escape and land at the bases from which they took off, their bases will be struck by our destructive surface-to-surface missiles.”

An aide to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said on Saturday that if Iran is attacked, it will retaliate against the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv.

“If the enemy attacks Iran, our missiles will strike Tel Aviv,” the IRNA news agency quoted Mojhtaba Zolnoor, Khamenei’s representative in the Guards, as saying.

The war games were announced on Saturday by Brig. Gen. Ahmad Mighani, head of army air defense, who said the main aim is to thwart aerial threats against Iran’s nuclear facilities — from reconnaissance to actual assault — posed by an imaginary enemy.

“Due to the threats against our nuclear facilities it is our duty to defend our nation’s vital facilities and so these maneuvers cover Bushehr, Fars, Isfahan, Tehran and western provinces,” Mighani said.

“Our unit will be in charge of the maneuvers but there will be units from the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij (militia),” he added.

Iran’s still non-operational nuclear power plant is in southern Bushehr province while its uranium enrichment plants are in Isfahan and near Tehran.

Iran has repeatedly held war games and boasted advances in its military capabilities in a bid to show its readiness to counter any threats over its nuclear program.