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.
Hmmm. Nice way for the Iranians to test to see how close they could get to our fleet with a nuclear weapon. A 10 KT bomb detonated within 200 yards would destroy much of the fleet if I am not mistaken.
War on Terror Conversations: Fred Thompson [Video]
*********************************
In the first Pajamas Media War on Terror Conversation, Presidential candidate Fred Thompson discusses the current situations in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. The senator/actor also explains why he thinks the recent Hollywood anti-war films are box office failures. Joining Thompson are PJM CEO Roger L. Simon and Bob Owens of Confederate Yankee. (Produced by Andrew Marcus)
Transcript of video here.
Iran plays down Gulf incident with US (AP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080107/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_us_navy
President Bush to speak on the Economy shortly!
Deck-mounted .50 M2s, Mk19Mod3s, and 20/30mms.
A couple five inch shells going over the bow might impress these warriors.
The commander of that Navy group should have cranked up the CIWIS and turned them into confetti. Those boats were allowed to get way too close. If they’d had torpedoed and the intent to fire them, we’d have three sunk ships.
Yup. Just another variant on their suicide-attack mode of operation.
Anything becomes a propaganda victory for them. Taunting us and getting away with it, obviously a victory; taunting us and getting blown up, a victory too, because they would then say that we were the evil aggressors.
BREAKING
something about a couple Navy jets down in Gulf.
“It looks like we’ve got us a war, A gut-busting, mother loving Navy War”
Of course going up against the Iranian Navy the Navy War would be over very quickly.
i SUPPOSE it is what Ahmanutjob wants . . . along with satan . . .
but . . . a big part of me says . . .
BLOW EM OUT OF THE WAY into such small pieces even the fish have a hard time finding them to eat.
While he is on the economy maybe he can explain how he keeps letting Iran and Pakistan poke us in the eye with no return action which drives up oil prices every time they do something provocative?
That’s why I said similar, not the same as. Unless they actually fire upon or touch one of our vessels, they will scream American aggressors if we fire first, regardless of whether true or not.
MSNBC is talking about the Fed and are we going into Recession.....Fox is talking about Hillary almost coming to tears in an extended Q&A Session in N.H.....
Ok so they should use one of those fire-fighting water drop buckets loaded up with rotting pig carcases and do some drops...
Won’t matter to anybody on the planet. Force is force. This isn’t some domestic disturbance.
And you would have ended up in the brig...
Right....see our MSM in action...post #55.
Haven't heard anything here.
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