Finally, Squall fired three warning shots from a.50 caliber gun, after which the Iranians changed course.
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The warning follows an incident on Tuesday when a United States warship and Iranian ships faced off near the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.
At one point, the Iranian boat came within 200 yards of one of the US Navy boats.
In the third incident, three Iranian boats crossed in front of the Tempest at high speed, coming within 600 yards of the ship.
Iran’s naval forces will warn or confront any foreign ship entering the country’s territorial waters, the Iranian defence minister said Thursday, remarks that came after an incident this week involving a USA warship.
In January, 10 soldiers were detained for 15 hours after two USA ships blundered into Iranian waters.
The U.S. fired flares and attempted radio communication with the Iranian boats but both were unsuccessful, so the Squall fired a few shots into the water as a deterrent.
The Iranian ships ignored repeated warnings as they conducted “a high-speed intercept” of the USS Nitze in global waters, a US defense official told Anadolu Agency in a statement.
He said his forces would warn or confront any foreign ship that entered his country’s waters.
Iran routinely harasses US ships on the high seas.
On Tuesday (23 August), four Iranian vessels had reportedly conducted “a high-speed intercept” of the destroyer, despite repeated warnings by the warship near the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.
US Central Command spokesman Commander Kyle Raines said in a statement that Iranian vessels came within 300 yards (meters) of the American destroyer the USS Nitze which was accompanied by the USS Mason, another destroyer. Urban said the Stout had to maneuver away each time to avoid a collision with the Iranian boat.
“If an American ship enters Iran’s maritime region, it will definitely get a warning”.
“Eventually, the Iranian vessels slowed before proceeding outbound”.
According to U.S. Navy Cmdr.
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Such control and naval patrols “naturally take place in Iran’s own territorial waters”, he stressed. They were later released, but the brief capture of the Americans was seized upon by Republicans in the USA presidential contest as evidence of weakness on the foreign stage on the part of Barack Obama.
