US military turns away speed boats in Gulf
Apr 11 01:34 PM US/Eastern
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Pentagon Official: Iranians Moving In ‘Taunting Manner’
Three speed boats of unidentified origin approached a US patrol boat as it transited the Gulf but stopped after a warning flare was fired, a US Navy spokesman said.
The USS Typhoon, a Coast Guard patrol boat, was heading from the central to the northern Gulf when it was approached by the high-speed boats, said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet.
"Typhoon issued the standard query to the incoming small boards via bridge-to-bridge," he said by telephone from Bahrain. "Upon receiving no response, Typhoon activated a flare. Small boats stopped and Typhoon continued on its way."
Christensen said the small boats were of "unidentified origin."
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Navy operate speed boats in the northern Gulf, and have played cat-and-mouse games in the past with US warships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
In January, tensions between the two countries escalated after Iranian speed boats swarmed around three US warships transiting the Strait.
The latest incident comes amid stepped US accusations against Iran of stoking violence on another front, Iraq.
General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, this week blamed Iran for an outbreak of fighting in Basra and Baghdad, charging that the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was providing funds, training, arms, ammunition to so-called "special groups."
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters Friday it was "inconceivable" that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was not aware of the support.
Gates said "there is some sense of an increased level of supply of weapons and support to these groups. But whether it's a dramatic increase over recent weeks, I just don't know."
Admiral William Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, concurred that Iran appeared to have stepped up support for the armed groups militias, which fought Iraqi forces to a standstill in the southern port of Basra last month.
Last year, US military officials said that the flow of weapons from Iran had declined but it was unclear whether it was in response to an Iranian pledge made to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"As far as I'm concerned, this action in Basra was very convincing that indeed they haven't," Mullen said.
