The Persian Gulf is the scene of tensions between Iran and the US
US tells Iran to back down after Gulf skirmish
By Damien McElroy
The White House has told Iran that it risked provoking “a dangerous incident” after a weekend skirmish brought the two nations to the brink of conflict.
US naval commanders were about to fire on a group of Iranian attack boats after being challenged at the mouth of the Gulf on Sunday, the Pentagon has disclosed.
Three US navy ships were targeted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy as they entered the strait just after dawn.
Five Iranian patrol boats came within 200 yards of the US vessels, issued threats over the radio and dropped mysterious objects into the water.
A transcript of the radio traffic revealed that the Iranians had warned the US commanders that an attack was underway: “I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes.”
A “swarm” attack by small Iranian boats in the busy shipping lane is one of the prime security threats to the US navy presence.
Its commanders were handing down an order to open fire when Iran navy patrol boats pulled back from international waters.
A Pentagon spokesman said the Iranians were “moments” away from coming under fire.
A statement issued by the US Navy Fifth Fleet said that the incident occurred at about 8am local time as the cruiser Port Royal, the destroyer Hopper and the frigate Ingraham were on their way into the Gulf and passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Tensions in the Strait, a narrow waterway responsible for 40 per cent of the global trade in oil shipments, have escalated as Washington and Teheran swap accusations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The White House demanded that Iran refrain from further provocation but Teheran played down the incident as an “ordinary occurrence”.
The Pentagon said the skirmishes constituted a “significant” act of aggression at the chokepoint of global oil supplies.
An official said: “Five small boats were acting in a very aggressive way, charging the ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the ships and causing our ships to take evasive manoeuvres. There were no injuries but there very well could have been.”
Iran’s suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons has seen the US-led naval coalition, based at the home of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, dramatically increase its presence in the Gulf.
The Iranian response has been a series of dangerous exercises that have forced the coalition on to high alert.
Operating procedures were overhauled last year after the Iranian navy seized 15 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines, who were protecting Iraqi oil facilities at the head in the Gulf.
The British patrol was accused of trespassing in Iranian territory and surrendered without a shot, in part because air cover was withdrawn before the Iranians pounced.
The 15 crew of the frigate Cornwall were taken to Teheran where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presided over a humiliating ceremony announcing their release as an Easter “gift” to the British people.
Steps taken to ensure the superiority of allied naval firepower along the international boundaries of the congested shipping lanes include deployment of modern attack helicopters plus rapid reaction US coastguard boats and additional marine guards.
Task Force 152, the US-led naval coalition, officially acts in support of the oil-rich but militarily-weak states. With President George W Bush due to visit the region this week, Iran’s threat to world oil supplies will loom large on the agenda.
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2 responses so far ↓
Scary // January 9, 2008 at 4:22 am
The minute I heard about this Hormuz incident, the first thing I thought of was Gulf of Tonkin. Very scary stuff indeed. Could Bush be willing to start a war with Iran and leave it up to his successor to sort out? I think it’s a grave possibility. The partisanship Bush has espoused would lead us to believe that he could sabotage a democratic presidency by making the current war even more unwinnable…
pjwalker911 // January 9, 2008 at 5:05 am
Are you kidding? Hillary (who voted for the war) and her vice president Obama (who is itching to invade Pakistan) will be only too happy to take over the War on Terror hoax for the next several years because first, it will give them tremendous power, and second because they will be able to ram the globalist agenda through. You need to wake up and realize that Bush and Clinton are on the same team. It is a tag-team dynasty and this election is just a big farce, political theater staged for public consumption, a public thoroughly brainwashed by the boob-tube. There is absolutely no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans when it comes to the ultimate end goals.
A Democrat got us into WWI. A Democrat got us into WWII. A Democrat dropped the bomb on Japan and he got us into the Korean War as well. And don’t forget it was Johnson, a Democrat, who pulled the Tonkin hoax on us and sunk us deep into Vietnam. And a Democrat got us into bombing Serbia too. Clinton secretly continued bombing campaigns in Iraq throughout the post Gulf War period and his UN Oil for Food program killed off at least a half million Iraqi children that Clinton’s Secretary of State Albright said was “worth it”. Democrats are just as evil and war-mongering as the Republicans and this is what is lost to most Democrats today. They all work closely together with the CIA (a terrorist and drug-trafficking business) towards this secret agenda for global Orwellian dictatorship.
I had been supporting Ron Paul as the only clear alternative, but frankly I am starting to have my doubts about him too. The puppet-masters who control this country are very clever at manipulating the masses and have been at it for a very long time. We need to do more research into the backgrounds of all candidates and never let our guard down because we are in very serious trouble in America.