Posted on 01/07/2008 10:27:59 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
US Navy commanders were moments away from firing on Iranian attack ships during a skirmish in the Straits of Hormuz, it has emerged.
A Pentagon spokesman revealed that five Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy boats harrassed and provoked three US ships in the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf at the weekend.
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The Iranian craft came within 200 yards of the US vessels, which were sailing in international waters.
The Iranian provocations included disregarding warnings to pull back, dropping mysterious objects in the path of the US ships and a hostile radio transmission.
The Pentagon said a radio message warned: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes."
The Iranian boats pulled away as a US Navy captain gave his crew orders to open fire.
"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 manoeuvres," the Pentagon official said.
"There were no injuries but there very well could have been."
The incident further clouds US judgements about Iran's strategic intentions in the Persian Gulf. Tensions over Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons have seen the US navy and its Iranian counterparts move to a tense stand-off.
A US-led coalition has steadily built up its firepower in the sensitive strait and Iranian commanders manoeuvre dangerously in response.
In March, Iran seized 15 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines in the Gulf and accused them of trespassing in Iranian territory while they inspected a merchant vessel. The Government maintained that they were in Iraqi waters.
The British personnel were held for almost two weeks before being freed in what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said was a "gift" to the British people.
Iran's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the Pentagon's claims, first reported on CNN.
It won’t happen again I bet. We actually had our finger on the button to make some Iranian fish food. Historically its been a form of counting “coup” the American Indians did it to harass soldiers. We could play the game but up the stakes, I mean put some heads on stakes.
I ernestly hope somebody has a plan to step ahead of the game, get a Predator to hang around and stop them as they leave shore.
Amen..Thank you, Ernest.May God Keep Safe All In Harm’s Way.
Not at 200 yds - too far away for anything but a combo meal of lead poisoning and water ingestion.
Could be. The Strait has been probably the major flashpoint should one of the ME producers decide to commit economic suicide.
Precisely right. Ed is correct, that we need to "send a message" that we will not be reduced to "playing chicken" on the high seas because we are afraid of war.
This kind of stunt is intended to show that we WON'T fight. That we will always back down.
This dangerous and reckless provocation has to be met with appropriate responses. An open radio threat such as was received....should have been the END for the entire flotilla.
That it wasn't implies that the rules of engagement are simply hand-cuffing our captains.
From ABCNES:
Iranians threatened U.S. ships in Hormuz: Pentagon
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five Iranian boats made aggressive maneuvers and showed hostile intent towards three U.S. Navy ships at the weekend in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route in the Gulf, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The Pentagon said the incident was serious. It described the Iranian actions as "careless, reckless and potentially hostile" and said Tehran should provide an explanation.
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In Tehran, the Iranian foreign ministry described the incident as ordinary.
"The example that happened on Saturday was similar to previous cases and is an ordinary and natural issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Iran's official IRNA news agency.
"This is an ordinary issue that happens for the two sides every once in a while and, after the identification of the two sides, the issue is resolved."
Vince Flynn’s fiction is turned into the truth.
If there was “an order to fire,” then why didn’t we fire? Was it discretionary? Also, what would we be firing? Phalanx?
Yes, indeed. It would be suicide but severe damage to Navy equipment and personnel is possible.
Where are the fishing poles?
You would think oil would blip upward at this, but it seems to be a non event for the commodity exchange.
Nah. There, the Iranians assaulted that small British patrol with overwhelming firepower, here it is the opposite, a small Iranian patrol attempting to take on vessels far more powerful than they are.
It is a propaganda victory for them if they come away from that encounter without being obliterated.
They weren't, hence it becomes another in a string of such propaganda victories that we are handing them by fence-sitting and ham-handed rules of engagement.
They'd have been shark sh** at 10x that distance had I been at the trigger.
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No. Those are for close-in-antimissle defense. Most likely the Five-inch guns.
They were expecting our soldiers to play nice like the Brits. That Fire Away command was not foreseen...
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