Iran’s IRGC harasses US Navy in Persian Gulf as nuclear talks stall
The "unsafe and unprofessional" encounter was at least the second in just a few months, a Navy official confirmed.
The crew of a fast boat belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) weaved headlong into the path of a US Navy ship in the Persian Gulf on June 20, in the latest tense encounter between the two adversaries in Middle Eastern waters.
The IRGC boat approached the USS Sirocco “head-on at a dangerously high speed,” coming within 50 yards (46 meters) of the American ship before altering course after the Sirocco’s crew blew the ship’s horn, the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet said in a statement.
The hourlong encounter, which involved two other IRGC boats, occurred as the US patrol ship and an accompanying US Navy transport vessel, the USNS Choctaw County, passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's government did not immediately respond to the US Navy’s account of the incident. The United States’ Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet released video purporting to show part of the incident, which can be seen here.
