Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched a new satellite-carrying rocket on Saturday, state TV reported, seeking to demonstrate the force’s space prowess even as anti-government protests rage across the country.

State TV said the Guard successfully launched the solid-fuelled rocket — what it called a Ghaem-100 satellite carrier.

Iranian state TV did not immediately show any footage of the launch. The state-run IRNA news agency reported that the carrier would be able to put a satellite weighing 80kg into orbit some 500 kilometres (310 miles) from Earth.

General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guard’s aerospace division, said he hoped the Guard would soon use the rocket to put a new satellite, named Nahid, into orbit.

Iran says its satellite programme, like its nuclear activities, is aimed at scientific research and other civilian applications. The US and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the programme because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.

Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 launched a monkey into space.

There have been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh programme, another satellite-carrying rocket. Ans a fire at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in February 2019 killed three researchers, authorities said at the time.

Saturday’s announcement came amid protests that have embroiled the country for seven weeks calling for overthrowing the clerical rule following the death in the custody of the morality police of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Security forces, including paramilitary volunteers with the Revolutionary Guard, have violently cracked down on the demonstrations, killing some 300 people, according to rights groups.