The incident was one of three encounters that USA ships had with Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats in the Gulf on Wednesday.
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A U.S. Navy ship fired several warning shots near an Iranian “fast boat” on Wednesday, according to a senior Department of Defense official, NBC News reported.
The aggressive behavior of the Iranian vessel prompted the USS Squall to fire three warning shots with its.50-caliber gun and the USS Tempest to fire three warning flares, according to the official, who said the Iranian vessel then turned away.
Iran briefly held 10 USA sailors captive in January after they accidentally strayed into Iranian waters.
Earlier this week, four boats operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps harassed the USS Nitze near the Straits of Hormuz. “The vessels were seen firing eight to nine rockets away from the United States ships and did not notify them of the intent to conduct a live fire exercise”. As two of the Iranian vessels continued to barrel toward the Nitze at high speed, the destroyer used an internationally recognized maritime danger signal three times…
Dehqan said Iran’s naval units monitor all movements in the Persian Gulf.
This week’s incident involving the Nitze took place less than a week after the American government effectively admitted paying ransom for hostages held in Iran.
General Hosein Dehghan told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that ‘if any foreign vessel enters our waters, we warn them, and if it’s an invasion, we confront’.
“They felt the need to take an additional step to try and de-escalate the situation, and that was, again, to fire the warning shots”, Cook said. Crews of USA boats were detained in January after their vessels veered into Iranian waters.
Reuters quoted the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, as saying that two of the Iranian vessels came within 300 yards (275 meters) of the USS Nitze in an incident that was “unsafe and unprofessional”.
“Our ships are operating as they have for years in that part of the world, in worldwide waters, and will continue to do so”, Cook said.
“The US Navy continues to remain vigilant and is trained to act in a professional manner, and we expect the same of all nations with professional maritime forces”.
Later that day, Tempest and Squall were harassed by a single Iranian Naser-class patrol boat, which is known to be operated by the IRGC.
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Long-standing US tensions with Iran over Tehran’s support for militant groups across the Middle East have not dissipated in the wake of a 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
