WASHINGTON — A U.S. Navy ship fired alerting shots near 3 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps boats in the Persian Gulf after the vessels approached at close quarters and disregarded repetitive attract draw back, the Navy stated Tuesday.
It was the 2nd tense encounter at sea in less than a month, after about a year of no such occurrences, and it accompanied high-stakes settlements in between Iran and world powers over its nuclear program.
The 3 armed Iranian speed boats “rapidly approached” a U.S. Navy patrol seaside ship, the Firebolt, and a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Baranoff, on Monday night in global waters at about 8 p.m. regional time, the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet in Bahrain stated in a declaration.
The Iranian vessels ran at “an unnecessarily close range with unknown intent” and at one point came within 68 backyards of both U.S. ships, the declaration stated.
The teams of the 2 U.S. ships “issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio and loud-hailer devices,” however the Revolutionary Guard vessels “continued their close range maneuvers,” the Fifth Fleet stated.
“The crew of Firebolt then fired warning shots, and the IRGCN (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps navy) vessels moved away to a safe distance from the U.S. vessels,” it stated.
The 3 Iranian boats “stopped working to work out due regard for the security of other vessels as needed under global law as they entered close distance to U.S. [ships],” the declaration stated.
Iran’s U.N. objective did not right away react to an ask for remark.
The Iranian boats’ actions “increased the risk of miscalculation and/or collision,” the Fifth Fleet stated, implicating the vessels of stopping working to comply with global maritime policies on avoiding crashes.
“U.S. naval forces continue to remain vigilant and are trained to act in a professional manner, while our commanding officers retain the inherent right to act in self-defense,” the declaration stated.
The Navy earlier acknowledged a different, comparable occurrence on April 2. In that case, a group of Iranian vessels from the nation’s Revolutionary Guard Corps bothered 2 U.S. Coast Guard ships over 3 hours in the Persian Gulf, consistently crossing in front of the bows of the American ships at close quarters.
