In a "significant" confrontation, five Iranian Revolutionary
Guard boats "harassed and provoked" three U.S. Navy ships early Sunday morning in the Strait of Hormuz , a narrow shipping channel leading in and out of the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military said Monday.
An Iranian official, however, said it was not a serious incident, the state-run news agency reported, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denied "any attacks of acts of aggression by its ships against U.S. naval vessels," Fars News Agency said, citing an Iranian television network.
U.S. officials said that as the destroyer USS Hopper, cruiser USS Port Royal and the frigate USS Ingraham were entering the Persian Gulf about 15 miles from Iranian territory, five small Iranian boats approached them at high speed and swarmed them. The Defense Department said the Iranian boats had "visible weapons," one with a machine gun.
The boats broke into two groups, with one on either side of the U.S. ships' formation, according to Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet.
Fred
Guard boats "harassed and provoked" three U.S. Navy ships early Sunday morning in the Strait of Hormuz , a narrow shipping channel leading in and out of the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military said Monday.
An Iranian official, however, said it was not a serious incident, the state-run news agency reported, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps denied "any attacks of acts of aggression by its ships against U.S. naval vessels," Fars News Agency said, citing an Iranian television network.
U.S. officials said that as the destroyer USS Hopper, cruiser USS Port Royal and the frigate USS Ingraham were entering the Persian Gulf about 15 miles from Iranian territory, five small Iranian boats approached them at high speed and swarmed them. The Defense Department said the Iranian boats had "visible weapons," one with a machine gun.
The boats broke into two groups, with one on either side of the U.S. ships' formation, according to Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet.
Fred
