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Boat Face-Off Reveals Iran Tactics: US

Posted Jan 12, 08 5:05 PM CST in World 

(Newser) – Objects tossed from Iranian boats posed no threat to US ships last Sunday, the Navy said yesterday, but did reveal Tehran's warfare tactics. The incident was also one of three between US and Iranian ships over the past month: In the first face-off, Dec. 19, the USS Whidbey Island fired warning shots at a small Iranian boat that passed within 500 yards, the Washington Post reports.

Three days later, the USS Carr sounded warning blasts at three vessels in the same area. "It's clearly strategically where the Iranian military has gone," said chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen: toward small boats bullying US sailors who remain on edge over al-Qaeda's USS Cole bombing in 2000. "The incident ought to remind us all just how real is the threat posed by Iran," Mullen said.

Sources: Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press

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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen takes questions during a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Friday, Jan. 11, 2008. The recent confrontation between Iranian...   (Associated Press)
The guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal (CG 73) sails through the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Dec. 13, 2005. An Iranian fleet of high-speed boats charged at and threatened to blow...   (Associated Press)
The USS Whidbey Island is on anti-pirate operations off Somalia in this file photo. The US Navy has confirmed that the Whidbey Island fired warning shots in a December 19 incident where a small Iranian...   (Getty Images)
The U.S. Navy's Ticonderoga class cruiser USS Port Royal, equiped with AEGIS combat systems, and "Tomahawk" ASM/LAM cruise missiles, patrols in the Persian Gulf in this 1997 file photo. Iranian boats...   (Associated Press)
A small Iranian craft is seen in the foreground with what purportedly shows U.S. naval ships in the background in this image taken from TV Thursday Jan. 10, 2008. Iranian state TV aired video Thursday...   (Associated Press)
This image released by the US Navy Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008, and shot Sunday, Jan. 6 from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, shows a small blue boat, alleged to be Iranian, purportedly racing near the...   (Associated Press)
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Iran  • US Navy  • Persian Gulf  • Strait of Hormuz  • Iranian speedboats  • Iranian Revolutionary Guards


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