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U.S. Navy's USS Mahan has close encounter with Iranian ship

By Andrew V. Pestano
U.S. officials said an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ship -- in "obviously provocative behavior" -- came within about 3,000 feet away from the USS Mahan destroyer in the Persian Gulf. File Photo by U.S. Navy
U.S. officials said an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ship -- in "obviously provocative behavior" -- came within about 3,000 feet away from the USS Mahan destroyer in the Persian Gulf. File Photo by U.S. Navy

April 26 (UPI) -- U.S. officials said an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ship came within about 3,000 feet of the USS Mahan destroyer in the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. officials said the Iranian "fast-attack craft" had its weapons manned, to which the USS Mahan responded by manning its own weapons, sounding the danger signal, firing a flare and altering course to avoid the oncoming Iranian ship.

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"Coming inbound at a high rate of speed like that and manning weapons, despite clear warnings from the ship, is obviously provocative behavior," a U.S. official told Fox News.

The USS Mahan did not fire warning shots but attempted bridge-to-bridge communication, to which they did not receive a response from the Iranian vessel.

A U.S. official told CNN the actions by the Iranian ship were "unprofessional but also provocative."

The U.S. Navy and Iran often have tense encounters in the Persian Gulf. In early March, U.S. officials said fast-moving Iranian vessels forced a surveillance ship to change course in the Strait of Hormuz.

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