“Tense Encounter” between U.S. Destroyer and Revolutionary Guard Speedboat in the Persian Gulf
The United States Navy reported a “tense” encounter between one of its destroyers and a vessel belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the Persian Gulf, stating that the American destroyer fired illumination rounds toward the IRGC speedboat during this encounter.
The United States Navy reported a “tense” encounter between one of its destroyers and a vessel belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the Persian Gulf, stating that the American destroyer fired illumination rounds toward the IRGC speedboat during this encounter.
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday, May 26, quoting Lieutenant Ian McCanahey, from the U.S. Fifth Fleet military personnel based in Bahrain, that this encounter occurred on Monday.
According to the American military official, an IRGC speedboat approached the American destroyer USS Maihan and came within “500 meters” of it.
Ian McCanahey added that the Maihan destroyer “made several attempts to determine the intent of the Iranian vessel by contacting it via radio on bridge-to-bridge communications and sending warning messages.”
According to him, the American destroyer also changed course, sounded the alarm twice, and blew the ship’s whistle five times for this purpose.
The American military official added that the crew of the destroyer also took positions behind ship-mounted weapons and fired illumination rounds toward the IRGC vessel.
According to this report, after these actions, the IRGC speedboat moved away from the vicinity of the American destroyer.
Iranian officials had not issued any statement regarding this incident as of Wednesday.
An unnamed American official also told the American news network Fox News that the IRGC speedboat “despite explicit warnings, approached the American destroyer at high speed and the speedboat crew was armed. Such an action is clearly a case of provocative behavior.”
The USS Maihan also had to fire warning shots in January toward four IRGC speedboats. The failure to heed these warnings led the Maihan destroyer crew to fire three warning shots with .50-caliber machine guns toward the IRGC speedboat.
American officials have repeatedly described the actions of IRGC vessels approaching U.S. Navy ships as “unprofessional” and “unsafe,” and White House officials have previously warned about the “danger of miscalculation” resulting from these encounters.
Reports by some American media outlets, including the television network Fox News, citing Pentagon statistics, indicate that the number of encounters between Iranian and American vessels in the Persian Gulf in the first half of 2016 has nearly doubled compared to the same period in 2015.
The continued encounters between IRGC speedboats and American naval vessels are occurring at a time when Donald Trump, the U.S. president, stated during his election campaign that if he won the presidential election, any Iranian speedboat that causes interference to American destroyers in the Persian Gulf waters would be targeted.
Hossein Dehqan, Iran’s Defense Minister, describes what he calls a “warning” to “foreign vessels” as “a natural matter” that is carried out in “Iran’s territorial waters.”
Source: Radio Farda
