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President Donald Trump said he ordered the US Navy. USA To destroy any Iranian armed ship that harasses American ships at sea.
Trump issued the warning to “shoot down and destroy” the ships in a tweet sent from his iPhone Wednesday morning. It comes after 11 gunboats from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps crossed the bows and stern of US ships at close range last week.
The US Central Command called the Iranian maneuvers “dangerous and provocative actions” in a statement, and said at the time that US commanders on the scene “retain the inherent right to act in self-defense.”
US military ships were conducting joint integration operations in the international waters of the Persian Gulf when Iranian ships harassed them, the Central Command said in the statement.
Iranian ships reached a 50-yard approach point with the USS Lewis B. Puller and 10 yards from the bow of the Maui Coast Guard cutter, according to the statement. Iran has disrupted shipping routes in the Gulf and has used asymmetric warfare to undermine American interests throughout the Middle East, though it is rarely directly targeting American ships.
Trump’s comments could mark another outbreak of tensions between the United States and Tehran.
Returning to the Obama administration, members of the Revolutionary Guard on small but nimble speedboats have harassed American ships, but the encounters have generally ended with warnings from Americans to back off. In 2017, a US Navy guided missile destroyer. USA He fired warning shots at four fast-attack Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
An Iranian surface-to-air missile system shot down a US Navy surveillance drone. USA Last June while operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said the drone was over its territory. The attack intensified regional tensions.
Earlier this year, the United States killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. An Iranian counterattack against a US base in Iraq did not kill anyone, but left US soldiers with head injuries, which Trump played down gravity.
