Navy Images Show Iranian Boats in Incident Involving Top U.S. General Iranian boats approached Navy warships with Gen. Joe Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, aboard as they passed through the Strait of HormuzBy Gordon Lubold
http://www.wsj.com/articles/navy-images-show-iranian-boats-in-incident-involving-top-u-s-general-1468349473
The U.S. military has released photos of Iranian boats that approached two Navy warships Monday as they transited through the Strait of Hormuz with a special passenger aboard: Gen. Joe Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees all U.S. forces in the Middle East.
The images, which aren’t typically released by the military, were captured by U.S. Navy personnel aboard the amphibious ship USS New Orleans and the destroyer USS Stout on Monday during a series of “interactions” between those two ships and smaller patrol boats operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
The images show two small patrol boats akin to a civilian speed boat, and a larger boat known as a Houdong fast attack craft. Each are typical of the kind of craft the IRGC uses in the region, sometimes to harass American and other ships transiting through the strait.
Iranian officials in a report in state media confirmed that speedboats operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy “escorted” the U.S. warships through the strait, defending the incident as longstanding practice. The news account, on the website of the semiofficial FARS news agency, also warned that the small but heavily armed boats could destroy the American vessels.
“Monitoring foreign vessels in regions where the IRGC Navy conducts its missions is not a new thing and it is always done on a routine basis and round the clock,” Gen. Alireza Tangsiri, the lieutenant commander of the IRGC navy, said in the report. He emphasized that the IRGC Navy is assigned to monitor foreign vessels, especially those operated by “the enemies of the Islamic Revolution and the Great Satan, the U.S.”
U.S. officials said that on Monday, the IRGC sent a total of five boats, including a fast attack craft and four of the smaller patrol boats to approach the New Orleans and the Stout, as Gen. Votel rode aboard the New Orleans. It was unclear if the IRGC knew initially of Gen. Votel’s visit to the ship. CONTINUE AT SITE
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