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January 07, 2008
Pentagon says Ships 'harrassed' by Iran
Rick Moran
Are these guys suicidal or what?
A couple of Iranian patrol boats took off after three US naval warships and, according to the Pentagon, "harrased" the ships in the narrow Straits of Hormuz:
In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels.
U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said.
"It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we've seen yet," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. local time Sunday as a U.S. Navy cruiser, destroyer and frigate were on their way into the Persian Gulf and passing through the strait - a major oil shipping route. Five small boats began charging the U.S. ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the ships and forcing the U.S. ships to take evasive maneuvers, the Pentagon official said.
There were no injuries but the official said there could have been, because the Iranian boats turned away "literally at the very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire" in self defense. The official said he didn't have the precise transcript of communications that passed between the two forces, but said the Iranians radioed something like "we're coming at you and you'll explode in a couple minutes." Iran has been aggressive against US ships in the Straits before. But this kind of action smacks of suicide - something it appears they wanted the Americans to think. More likely they were hoping to start an incident that would have the rest of the world calling for the Navy to leave the Persian Gulf alltogether.
Not very smart - but neither is buzzing a missile frigate. Our seamen have a long memory and few forget what happened to the USS Cole when a small boat filled with explosives crashed into her, killing 17 men.
No doubt there will be more incidents of this nature in the future as the Iranians continue to test our resolve.
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