Video footage shows Gulf encounter

[unhappycamper]

An Iranian high-speed boat is shown during the Jan. 6 encounter.


Video footage shows Gulf encounter
Staff and wire reports
Posted : Tuesday Jan 8, 2008 18:00:16 EST

The Navy has released video footage of the encounter between U.S. warships and Iranian gunboats that occurred in the Persian Gulf on Sunday. The footage, released Tuesday afternoon, includes radio communications between a destroyer sailor and the gunboats, and the chilling warning that the Iranians are “coming to you.”

In the video, the ships blast their horns and the sailor finally threatens “defensive measures” as the boats make high-speed runs close to the three Navy ships, which were transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The incident, which President Bush denounced Tuesday as a “provocative act,” was videotaped by a crew member on the bridge of the destroyer Hopper. The boats can be seen approaching the cruiser Port Royal and frigate Ingraham, which were traveling with Hopper.

Watch the video

“It is a dangerous situation,” Bush said during a White House news conference. “They should not have done it, pure and simple. ... I don’t know what their thinking was, but I’m telling you what my thinking was. I think it was a provocative act.”