Pentagon Has Video, Audio of Iranian Naval Incident

January 8, 2008 · Filed Under World News

The Pentagon has video and audio tape of an incident in the Strait of Hormuz Sunday in which armed Iranian speedboats swarmed three US warships and radioed a threat to blow them up.

A Pentagon official, said he understood that the audio portion of the tape includes the threat radioed by one of the Iranian vessels to blow up the US ships.

He said the video consists mainly of long shots of Iranian vessels in the water, but also captures the sounds of ship horns and communications in the bridge of the US ships.

Pentagon officials said the Iranians also dropped white floating boxes into the path of the Ingraham, a guided missile frigate which passed by them without incident.

The US warships issued warnings and engaged in evasive maneuvers but no shots were fired during the encounter, which lasted less than 30 minutes, according to US defense officials.