"Tense encounter" between US destroyer and IRGC boat in Persian Gulf
The US Navy has reported a "tense" encounter between one of its destroyers and one of the Revolutionary Guards vessels in the Persian Gulf, saying that the American destroyer fired a live round at the IRGC boat during the encounter.
The US Navy has reported a "tense" encounter between one of its destroyers and one of the Revolutionary Guards vessels in the Persian Gulf, saying that the American destroyer fired a live round at the IRGC boat during the encounter.
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday, May 26, citing Lieutenant Ian McConaughey, of the US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, that the confrontation occurred on Monday.
According to the American military, the IRGC's speedboat approached the American destroyer USS Meehan and came "within 500 meters" of it.
Ian McConaughey added that the Mihan destroyer "tried several times to contact the Iranian vessel via deck-to-deck radio and send warning messages to determine the Iranian vessel's intentions."
According to him, the American destroyer also changed course, sounded the siren twice, and blew the ship's whistle five times for this purpose.
The American military added that the destroyer's crew also positioned themselves behind the ship's weapons and fired flares at the IRGC vessel.
According to the report, after these actions, the IRGC boat moved away from the vicinity of the American destroyer and away from the location.
Iranian authorities have not yet released a report on the incident as of Wednesday.
An unnamed American official also told the American news network Fox News that the IRGC boat "came towards the American destroyer at high speed despite clear warnings, and the boat's crew was also armed. Such an action is clearly an example of provocative behavior."
The destroyer USS Mayhen was also forced to fire warning shots at four IRGC boats in January. When these warnings went unanswered, the crew of the destroyer Mayhen fired three more warning shots at the IRGC boat with a .50 caliber machine gun.
American officials have repeatedly described the actions of the IRGC vessels in approaching the country's ships as "unprofessional" and "unsafe," and White House officials have previously warned about the "risk of miscalculation" resulting from these encounters.
A report by some American media outlets, including Fox News, citing Pentagon statistics, indicates that the number of confrontations between Iranian and American vessels in the Persian Gulf has almost doubled in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.
The continued confrontation between the Revolutionary Guards and American ships comes at a time when US President Donald Trump had said during his election campaign that if he wins the presidential election, any Iranian speedboat that disturbs American destroyers in the waters of the Persian Gulf will be targeted.
Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan has described what he describes as a "warning" to "foreign vessels" as a "natural event" taking place in "Iranian territorial waters."
Source: Radio Farda
