Boat Face-Off Reveals Iran Tactics: US

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. (More Iran stories.)