Iran games in Straights of Hormuz

CNN:

The U.S. military reported Monday on a "significant" confrontation involving five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats that "harassed and provoked" three U.S. naval ships in international waters over the weekend.

U.S. military officials said the incident occurred early Sunday morning in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping channel leading in and out of the Persian Gulf.

The five Iranian ships made "threatening" moves -- in one case coming within 200 yards of a U.S. ship, the U.S. officials said.

In one radio transmission, the Iranians told the U.S. Navy: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," the U.S. military officials told CNN.

When the U.S. ships heard that radio transmission, they took up their gun positions and officers were "in the process" of giving the order to fire when the Iranians abruptly turned away, the U.S. officials said. Watch what U.S. officials are saying about the incident »

After the radio transmission, one of the Iranian ships dropped white boxes into the water in front of the U.S. ships, the officials told CNN. It was not clear what was in the boxes, the officials said. See a map of the Strait of Hormuz »

No shots were fired and no one was injured in the confrontation.

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In November, the U.S. military reported that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps had taken command of that country's naval operations in the Persian Gulf.

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While the Iranians may think they are sending some kind of message to the US fleet they are grossly mistaken. In the case of conflict with the US, those boats that were used in this simulated attack would never make it out of port. They would be destroyed before their engines ever got warm.

What this incident does suggest is that despite the NIE report on Iran, it remains a hostile country and should be considered an enemy of the US.

Strategy Page suggest that no one is really in charge in Tehran.

NBC news reports on the incident and Iran's response.

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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini played down the incident, suggesting it was an issue of mistaken identity. He did not comment on the U.S. claims of the Iranian boats’ actions.

“That is something normal that takes place every now and then for each party, and it (the problem) is settled after identification of the two parties,” he told the state news agency IRNA.

The incident was “similar to past ones” that were resolved “once the two sides recognized each other.”

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It is not credible that the Iranian boats did not recognize navy cruiser USS Port Royal, destroyer USS Hopper and frigate USS Ingraham which the boats that were threatened. Just who did Iran confuse these large US Navy ships with?