The U.S. military on Tuesday released video of a confrontation between a U.S. coastal patrol vessel and an Iranian boat in the Persian Gulf, in which the U.S. boat used flares and then live fire to deter the Iranian boat from approaching.
The U.S. says the Iranian vessel did not respond to repeated attempts to establish radio communications and came with 150 yards of the USS Thunderbolt, in what the U.S. called an “unsafe and unprofessional interaction.”
The USS Thunderbolt was taking part in a routine exercise in international waters before the “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” by the Iranians.
“The Iranian vessel did not respond to repeated attempts to establish radio communications as it approached,” said the statement from U.S. Central Command statement. “Thunderbolt then fired warning flares and sounded the internationally recognized danger signal of five short blasts on the ship’s whistle, but the Iranian vessel continued inbound.”
Eventually, the U.S. boat fired a burst of warning shots, which can be heard on the video, and the Iranian vessel halted its approach.
“The Iranian vessel’s actions were not in accordance with the internationally recognized ‘rules of the road’ nor internationally recognized maritime customs, creating a risk for collision,” the military said.
