WASHINGTON: The Pentagon alleged on Tuesday that seven Iranian military

boats had harassed a US patrol ship in international waters in the Gulf over
the weekend in yet another “unsafe and unprofessional” interaction.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fast-attack boats approached the USS
Firebolt on Sunday with their machine guns uncovered, though not trained on
the Americans, according to Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis. “Three of
them manoeuvred close to the (US) ship, shadowing her course from a range of
about 500 yards,” Davis said.

The Iranian vessels eventually broke away, but one then turned towards the
Firebolt and stopped directly in front of it.

“This caused the Firebolt to have to manoeuvre to avoid collision,” Davis said,
noting that the US sailors had attempted to hail the Iranians via radio. “This is
another example of an unsafe and unprofessional interaction we’ve had with
the IRGCN.”

Sunday’s encounter is at least the fifth the Pentagon has revealed in the past
month, with US military officials repeatedly blasting Tehran for the maritime
incidents.

In one incident last month, the USS Squall resorted to firing warning shots
from a 50-caliber gun at an Iranian vessel as it approached.

Navy officials say ships from the US and Iranian navies interacted more than
300 times last year and more than 250 times the first half of this year, with 10
percent of those encounters deemed unsafe and unprofessional.

“Commanding officers of ships are given the inherent right of self-defense, and
what we don’t want to have is a situation where, due to miscalculation, that
right is invoked when it doesn’t need to be,” Davis said.

In January, the Iranian navy briefly captured the crews of two US patrol boats
that had, through a series of blunders, strayed into Iranian territorial waters.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2016