On the eve of President Bush's journey to the Middle East, under death threats from Al Qaeda, Iranian fast-attack gun boats nearly provoked the United States Navy to action in the Gulf of Hormuz. It is unclear the intentions of the Revolutionary Guard.
If
the reports streaming in are accurate, these Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats were seconds from being destroyed. The order to fire was imminent from the USN Commander as the threats from the vessels was announced. As the orders were about to be given, Sailors were at the ready when the vessels suddenly sped away.
The captain of one of the U.S. ships was in the process of giving an order to fire but the order was not implemented as the Iranian boats then moved away, one official said.
The official said the five Iranian speedboats "pretty much swarmed" the three U.S. vessels in international waters with the Iranians threatening that one of the U.S. ships would blow up in minutes.
As President Bush travels to the Middle East in an attempt to broker a peace between Israel and the "Palestinians", it seems Iran is interested in creating more divisiveness in the region and trigger another international incident as they did with the British Navy last year.
It is a common and known quality of travel in these waters to have the Iranian Navy darting in and out of shipping lanes and other sea-going vessels but this incident was a first for the USN.
According to the officials, the radio transmission from one of the Iranian ships said: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes."
The officials said it was not unusual for Iranian boats to get close to U.S. ships in the strait but the radio transmission was unusual.
The officials said the Iranian vessels also dropped small white boxes into the water. It was not clear what the boxes contained.
There has been no official response from the Iranian government and US Navy vessels remain at a higher level of alert.
