First on CNN: Five Iranian boats fire shots in the Persian Gulf
(CNN)Five Iranian boats fired shots across the bow of a Singapore flagged cargo vessel in the Persian Gulf on Thursday in an attempt to potentially stop the ship, a U.S. official told CNN. For the first time, the incident brought another Persian Gulf nation into the recent rising maritime tensions in the region.
It is not yet clear if any of the rounds hit the Alpine Eternity. There were no U.S. citizens or cargo on board. The Pentagon is still gathering information about the incident.
The incident began when five small fast boats, believed to be manned by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy approached the cargo vessel just off the coast of the United Arab Emirates but in international water, the official said.
These Iranian boats are typically manned with smaller caliber weapons such as machine guns.
The Iranian boats fired across the bow, and at that point the cargo vessel turned and escaped by entering into UAE territorial waters, according to initial U.S. military reports of the incident. The UAE sent three of its coast guard boats out to the cargo vessel.
The incident began with the Iranians ordering the ship into Iranian waters. When the ships master refused, the Iranians began to fire in a way to try to disable the ship, not just as warning shots, the U.S. official said.
Several shots hit the cargo ship, but did not disable it. The ship went into UAE waters and the Iranians followed it into those territorial waters, continuing to fire, before breaking off.
The cargo ship's master did call coalition warships in the vicinity on the radio including U.S. Navy warships to ask for help when the incident began. A P-3 from a country in the region was sent overhead and the Navy began moving, but the incident was over before it could get there.
The Pentagon recently stopped escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz and it's not clear if those operations will resume. They had been escorting commercial shipping but of two recent Iranian incidents interfering with cargo shipping in the area.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/14/politics/persian-gulf-iranian-boats-shots-fired/index.html
Hm..
I also read that Iran has already seized one cargo ship, from some island nation somewhere in the Pacific I can't remember where. Big huge container cargo ship; Iran claims the ship's flag country "owes Iran unpaid debts."
I don't know folks, what do you do here? This is inexcusable, by Iran. This is War of 1812 stuff. You can't just go seizing ships on the high seas.
USA has a natl security interest in shipping lanes remaining open, in international waters.
So wtf.
We're still negotiating with Iran for this nuclear deal thing. Why are we still doing that. This is just unacceptable, no nation can be allowed to do this, you can't run around being pirates on the high seas and that's just okay.
I think Obama should issue an executive order that the US Navy will sink any ship that is firing on a cargo ship, in the Persian Gulf.
What other opinion can one have, I know I'm trying to not be a neocon warhawk, but this is old school piracy on the high seas stuff you just can't let this go on.
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