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Another
US patrol craft and a Kuwaiti Navy ship were also harassed in the
incident, which took place in the northern end of the Persian Gulf.
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Lou Pumphrey, who is with the nonprofit Veterans for Peace, walks through downtown Cleveland on Sunday, July 17, ahead of the Republican National Convention
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At
one point, the Iranian boat came within 200 yards of one of the US Navy
boats. When it failed to leave the area after the Navy had fired flares
and had a radio conversation with the Iranian crew, the US officials
said, the USS Squall fired three warning shots.
Following standard
maritime procedures, the Navy fired the three shots into the water to
ensure the Iranians understood they needed to leave the immediate area.
State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said incidents like this
one "unnecessarily escalate tensions," adding that the US doesn't know
Iran's intentions.
In an encounter Tuesday, a US Navy
official told CNN four Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels
conducted a "high-speed intercept" of the USS Nitze in waters near the
Strait of Hormuz Tuesday, deeming the incident "unsafe and
unprofessional."
The official said
two of the vessels slowed and turned away only after coming within 300
yards of the US guided-missile destroyer as it transited international
waters near the Strait of Hormuz, and only after the destroyer had sent
multiple visual and audio warnings.
The incidents are only the latest in a
series of all-too-close encounters with Iran in the region since
December. These brushes have included Iranian rocket launches, drones
flying over US vessels and the capture of US sailors in January.
They
come against the backdrop of renewed US diplomatic contacts with Iran,
which has triggered a political backlash among Iranian hardliners,
including the powerful IRGC.
In
the wake of Tuesday's incident, the Nitze and US Naval Forces Central
Command have determined that the Iranian vessels were violating
international law and maritime standards, acting dangerously and
unprofessionally.
The Iranian vessels moved at high speed
toward the Nitze, which was operating in accordance with international
law in international waters and ignored maritime "rules of the road" as
set out in the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for
Preventing Collisions at Sea.
According to the Navy official, the IRGC
vessels ignored multiple warnings, creating a dangerous, harassing
environment that could have pushed the Nitze to take defensive measures,
escalating the situation.
The US
Naval Forces Central Command is responsible for approximately 2.5
million square miles of area that stretches from the Arabian Gulf to the
Red Sea, Gulf of Oman, parts of the Indian Ocean and 20 countries.
Tuesday's
encounter took place as the Nitze and the guided-missile destroyer USS
Mason were conducting what the official said was a routine transit near
the internationally recognized strait. The official spoke to CNN
anonymously to discuss military matters.
The
four IRGC vessels approached at high speed. After identifying them, the
Nitze tried 12 times to make contact by radio without receiving a
response, according to the Navy official.
As two of the Iranian vessels
continued to barrel toward the Nitze at high speed, the destroyer used
an internationally recognized maritime danger signal three times.