Iran says U.S. Navy fired a warning shot near its vessels in the Persian Gulf
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard said Saturday that a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier fired a warning shot in an “unprofessional” confrontation with Iranian vessels, the official IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA quoted a statement from the guard as saying that the U.S. carrier Nimitz and an accompanying ship came near an Iranian offshore oil platform in the Persian Gulf and a helicopter from the ship hovered near vessels manned by the Revolutionary Guard.
The report said the confrontation took place Friday afternoon and the U.S. ships left the area following the encounter.
The Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet had no immediate comment.
The incident comes after a Navy patrol boat fired warning shots Tuesday near an Iranian vessel that American sailors said came dangerously close to them during a tense encounter.
Iran and the U.S. frequently have run-ins in the Persian Gulf, nearly all involving the Revolutionary Guard, a separate force from Iran’s military that answers only to the country’s supreme leader. In January, near the end of President Obama’s term, the U.S. destroyer Mahan fired shots toward Iranian fast-attack boats as they neared the warship in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranians view the American presence in the gulf as a provocation. They have accused the U.S. Navy of unprofessional behavior, especially in the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil trade passes by sea.
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