A U.S. Coast Guard cutter fired two rounds of warning shots at a group of Iranian fast boats after what the Pentagon described as an “unsafe and unprofessional” encounter in the Strait of Hormuz.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby called Monday’s high-speed encounter, involving 13 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) boats, “significant” given that it took place in an area where movement is limited.
According to Kirby, a group of six U.S. vessels, including the guided missile cruiser USS Monterey, had been escorting the guided missile submarine USS Georgia into the strait when the Iranian boats approached them “at a very fast speed … acting very aggressively.”
