Iranian ‘attack craft’ approaches US Navy destroyer in Persian Gulf

USS Mahan shifts course to avoid Iranian vessel, sounds danger signal, fires flares and mans its weapons

By ToI Staff 26 April 2017, 10:08 am 0 Edit

File photo of the USS Mahan destroyer, seen in September 2002. (Public Domain/Photographer's Mate Airman Rex Nelson, US Navy/Wikipedia)

An Iranian “fast attack craft” approached a US Navy destroyer Monday in the Persian Golf, prompting the American vessel to change course and fire warning flares.

While the foreign vessel did not come any closer than 1,000 meters, it was close enough for the USS Mahan to sound its danger signal and ready its weapons as it shifted course to avoid the Iranian ship, Fox News reported late Tuesday.

In January, the same US vessel fired three warning shots at a group of Iranian ships that approached it at high speed in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has previously harassed US Navy ships in the Persian Gulf and around the Strait of Hormuz, with the most notable case being Iran’s capture in January 2016 of 10 US Navy sailors who had drifted into Iranian waters after experiencing mechanical problems.

The strait is a narrow waterway, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Indian Sea, through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.