(Washington) A US Coast Guard vessel fired warning shots at more than a dozen Iranian ships that had approached a US submarine in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said Monday.
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Thirteen rapid attack speedboats from the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, approached within 140 meters of seven American ships.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the incident involved six U.S. surface ships escorting the USS Georgia attack submarine. It was from the Coast Guard patroller USCGC Maui that a total of 30 warning shots from a .50 caliber machine gun were fired, in two bursts, at 13 Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboats.
This is the second such event in two weeks.
AMERICAN NAVY PHOTO
The USS Georgia attack submarine passed through the Strait of Hormuz last December.
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“Unfortunately, the harassment by the Revolutionary Guards is not a new phenomenon,” Kirby insisted.
“It’s dangerous, it’s unprofessional. This is the kind of action that can cause injuries and lead to misjudgments in the region, ”he said.
The Pentagon spokesman clarified that American ships had the right to “self-defense” and that they knew how to use it.
He also noted that these maneuvers had taken place in the Strait of Hormuz, where the boats have little space to navigate.
“It is a bottleneck in the region” thus pointed out John Kirby.
At the end of April, three Iranian rapid attack ships had approached within 70 meters of two American ships in international waters of the northern Persian Gulf, causing warning shots, according to the US Navy.
The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic passage through which passes a third of the oil transported by sea in the world.
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