Washington: Accusing Iran's Revolutionary Guard of acting "irresponsibly" after a stand-off between US and Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the top US Navy commander in the region warned that American warships were "more that sufficiently" armed to take on enemy vessels if provoked.

US officials accused speed-boats belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard of harassing and provoking three US Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz yesterday, threatening to blow up the American vessels.

US forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian side when the boats turned and moved away. "We take this deadly seriously," said Vice Admiral Kevin Coscriff, Commander of the US Fifth Fleet, who said the American vessels were in international waters when the incident occurred.

"We have a variety of self-defense weapons on our ships of various calibers, ranges, and the like. They're slightly different for each ship, but they were more than sufficient for this environment. They would have been more than sufficient, had they been necessary," Coscriff said in a teleconference from Bahrain.

"They had neither anti-ship missiles nor torpedoes. And I wouldn t characterize the posture of the US 5th Fleet as afraid of these ships or these three US ships afraid of these small boats," he said.

Source : PTI