A US vessel was “recently” intercepted by Iranian speedboats in the Persian Gulf, according to a Farsi-language report Thursday by Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, and by Shafaq News.
US Navy spokesperson Commander Timothy Hawkins, who represents the Bahrain-based US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, said he was not aware of “any sort of unsafe interaction” with Iran in the past two days.
A video broadcast on Iranian state television, allegedly filmed from one of the Iranian speedboats, shows an American vessel being chased by speedboats belonging to Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The video was broadcast on Iranian state television showing speedboats chasing a vessel flying the American flag with personnel on board. A voice is heard shouting in Farsi, “Keep chasing them.”
It is not clear when the incident took place.
The IRGC rejected a claim by the US Navy last May that 13 armed Iranian speedboats sparked a tense encounter with American Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US said at the time that warning shots were fired by a US Coast Guard cutter when two of the speedboats got dangerously close.
