U.S. ship warns Iranian boats in Persian Gulf

[unhappycamper]

U.S. ship warns Iranian boats in Persian Gulf
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 13, 2008 14:47:12 EDT

A Navy patrol ship in the Persian Gulf fired a flare to warn off three approaching high-speed boats late Thursday, the Navy said, and although a Navy spokesman said the boats were unidentified, U.S. news agencies reported they were Iranian.

The coastal patrol ship Typhoon was in the central Persian Gulf on its way north when it encountered the three boats, said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for 5th Fleet in Bahrain. The Typhoon’s crew made what Christensen called “standard queries” over the bridge-to-bridge marine radio, warned the ships to stay away, and then fired the flare. As the Typhoon continued its transit, the three boats fell behind out of sight, he said.

Christensen said there would be no investigation because “there was nothing to investigate. Nothing happened.”

Navy officials in Washington, who identified the boats as Iranian, told reporters they were not apparently armed and came within about 200 yards of the Typhoon before its crew fired the warning flare.

Iran’s official PressTV news network reported on its Web site that an Iranian official denied there was a confrontation between the boats and the Typhoon. PressTV quoted the official as saying that the boats had approached the U.S. ship for “a routine check.”

Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/04/navy_typhoon_encounter_041108w/

[liberal N proud]

1. Provoke, provoke, proclaim they are evil and then provoke some more

The plan must be to try and get them to fire a shot at a US vessel, then an all out war can follow

[SteinbachMB]

2. Not this crap again.

It looks like the Iranians like to play chicken.