The incidents involving the Iranian ships and parts of the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet spanned multiple days and included two U.S. patrol ships, the USS Squall and Tempest as well as two U.S. destroyers, the USS Nitze and Stout. According to Navy spokesman Commander Bill Urban, shots were fired after an Iranian boat approached the USS Squall head-on, coming within 200 yards.
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It said the usa ship fired the shots into the water after the Iranian ship did not leave after a brief radio conversation, CNN said, citing us officials.
The Iranian boat sped away after the USS Squall fired the three warning shots into the waters ahead of the speeding boat to warn it off.
The three vessels had been traveling in formation when they were approached by a Naser-class Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy water craft at high speed, according to US officials.
“The nature of this incident would have led NAVCENT recommend a diplomatic message of protest if this interaction had been with a country with which the United States had an official diplomatic relationship”, Urban said, noting that the USA has no official relations with Iran.
Those encounters followed an incident August 24 in which four Iranian fast attack craft approached the Arleigh Burke-class DDG USS Nitze at high speeds during a routine transit of the narrow Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf.
Dehghan’s comments came after four Iranian small boats sailed near the guided missile destroyer USS Nitze on Wednesday in the Persian Gulf.
The Navy has called the incidents harassing, unsafe and unprofessional because they fail to confirm with worldwide law and maritime standards.
The Iranian boats closed to within 300 yards of the Nitze before slowing and diverting course, according to the official who described it “as unsafe and unprofessional”.
Earlier this week, four boats operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps harassed the USS Nitze near the Straits of Hormuz. In the second encounter, occurring in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, a U.S. Navy ship was forced to fire three warning shots at the Iranian aggressors. The USS Nitze tried to communicate with the Iranian vessels 12 times, but received no response.
“These sorts of unsafe and unprofessional actions can lead to escalation and miscalculation, which may necessitate additional defensive maneuvers”, said Cmdr. In one instance, a USA warship fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel.
They said vessels harassed the destroyer despite repeated warnings.
And in January, the IRGC captured 10 American sailors when their two Riverine Command Boats accidentally strayed into waters near Iran-controlled Farsi Island, in the Persian Gulf.
The shots, fired from a 50-calibre gun, caused the Iranian vessel to turn away, the spokesman added.
The encounter occurred in worldwide waters in the strait, a vitally important choke point with Iran to its north and the United Arab Emirates to the south.
The 10 American sailors were released within 24 hours.
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Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, Iran’s defense minister, told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that patrols created to prevent intrusions into Iran’s territorial waters would continue.
