Washington: Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three US Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to blow up the American vessels, US officials said today. They described it as a serious provocation.

US forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the yesterday's incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Defence Department official said. "It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we ve seen yet," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the record.
 
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."
The incident occurred at about 5 am local time yesterday as a US Navy cruiser, destroyer and frigate were on their way into the Gulf and passing through the strait a major oil shipping route.

Five small boats began charging the US ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the ships and forcing the US ships to take evasive maneuvers, the Pentagon official said.

There were no injuries but the official said there could have been, because the Iranian boats turned away "literally at the very moment that US forces were preparing to open fire" in self defence.

The official said he did not have the precise transcript of communications that the two forces exchanged, but said the Iranians radioed something like "we re coming at you and you ll explode in a couple minutes."

Source : PTI