In what is being called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three US Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, officials said Monday. US forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats ended the incident and turned and moved away, said a Pentagon official. "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 US Navy cruiser, destroyer and frigate were transiting the strait on their way into the Gulf. "Five small boats were acting in a very aggressive way, charging the ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the ships and causing our ships to take evasive maneuvers," the Pentagon official said. "There were no injuries but there very well could have been," he said, adding that the Iranian boats turned away "literally at the very moment that US forces were preparing to open fire" in self defense. He said he did not have the precise transcript of communications that the two forces exchanged, but the Iranians radioed something to the effect that "we're coming at you and you'll explode in a couple minutes." http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517316850&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull Citing unidentified U.S. officials, CNN said the Iranian vessels came within 200 meters of the U.S. ships in international waters in the strait on Saturday, and U.S. sailors came close to opening fire. The captain of one U.S. vessel was in the process of giving the order to shoot when the Iranian ships began turning away, CNN said. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/942434.html
Within 200 meters!!! Christ, that's some restraint. Hard to believe they would allow that close of an approach.
yeah.. i will wait for additional reports on this little provocation. if Iranian war ships were 50 miles off the coast of D.C. we would shit a brick and would definitely be all over them.
Given our prior track record (Gulf of Tonkin, Iraq WMD), I am highly skeptical of this "provocation."
Fair enough but given the Iranian record of capturing 15 british sailors half a year ago, interfering in Iraq, threateting Israel with annihilation and openly parading their nuclear ambitions would you really put it past them to provoke this administration on the eve of Bush's visit to Israel?
Same can be said about Viet Cong or Saddam. Just because they have the most obvious motive does not rule out automatically that the "provocation" was staged or fabricated. The Iranians claimed that the Brits were in Iranian waters. I don't know the details but there are many examples of different countries' territorial (marine?) claims not recognized by others. So to provoke a "provocation" what better strategy than going into disputed waters and dare them to defend it?
You know what I hate about you ratboy??? You are so skeptical of dddooo's intentions. Next thing you will tell me is that you do not trust Conrad Black's Jerusalem post.
Actually Iran is not denying the incident: "Iran played down the event, describing it as an "ordinary occurrence". "The issue is resolved after both sides recognise each other," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said. Official media also reported the US statement about Iran's allegedly threatening behaviour with scepticism, implying that Washington was exaggerating the incident. ... The BBC's Paul Reynolds says the key question is whether this is a one-off incident or whether it heralds a more aggressive stance by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7175325.stm Iran's Foreign Ministry ... suggested the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels. ... The [US] 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." http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/07/news/Iran-US-Navy.php