U.S. Patrol Ship Fires Warning Shots After Episode With Iranian Vessel

Incident comes a day after U.S. said 4 Iranian boats carried out an unsafe intercept of a destroyer.

An American coastal patrol ship fired warning shots in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday after a dangerous approach from an Iranian vessel, according to the Pentagon, which urged Iran to ease maritime tensions with U.S. ships transiting international waters in the Middle East.

The USS Squall and the USS Tempest, two American coastal patrol ships, were transiting the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, when the U.S. said an Iranian vessel harassed the ships. According to a U.S. defense official, the Iranian craft was at one point going head-to-head with the USS Tempest and coming within 200 yards of the American patrol craft. The Iranian ship didn’t respond to radio calls.

The aggressive behavior of the Iranian vessel prompted the USS Squall to fire three warning shots with its .50-caliber gun and the USS Tempest to fire three warning flares, according to the official, who said the Iranian vessel then turned away.

The same Iranian vessel also approached the USS Stout, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, in the region on Wednesday, crossing the American destroyer’s bow on three separate occasions in what the U.S. Navy deemed an unsafe intercept, the U.S. defense official said. The USS Stout changed its course to avoid a collision, the official said.

The close calls came a day after four Iranian vessels harassed the USS Nitze, another Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer, as it transited the Strait of Hormuz.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the three American ships were operating in international waters as normal and said that the crews deemed the incidents that occurred on Wednesday unsafe and unprofessional.

“The onus here is on the Iranians to conduct themselves in a safe and professional manner like navies all over the world do,” Mr. Cook said at a Pentagon press briefing Thursday. “In this instance, and the instance with the Nitze, that did not happen.”

Mr. Cook said he hoped the Iranian behavior would stop. “We certainly hope it doesn’t continue because it serves no purpose other than to raise tensions in an important part of the world—tensions that we don’t seek to have escalated,” Mr. Cook said.

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said Iranian maritime units are responsible for the security of Iran and the Persian Gulf and are obliged to monitor actions of foreign vessels in the region.

“If the U.S. Navy enters the Iranian maritime domain, they will definitely receive warning,” Mr. Dehghan was quoted by the Iranian Students News Agency as saying on Thursday. “We will give them notice, and if it is considered as trespassing in our waters, we will confront them.”

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