President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered the United States Navy to destroy Iranian boats harassing U.S. ships.
This followed a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf.
“I have instructed the U.S. Navy to shoot down and destroy any Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump tweeted.
Iran had on Sunday accused America of giving a “Hollywood version of events”.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it deployed boats for routine patrols after U.S. forces blocked one of its ships in two separate incidents in early April,
The U.S. Navy posted a video of the latest incident on Twitter.
The Navy, in a statement, said crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio, five short blasts from the ships’ horns and long-range acoustic noise maker devices, but received no response from the IRGCN.
“After approximately one hour, the IRGCN vessels responded to the bridge-to-bridge radio queries, then manoeuvred away from the US ships and opened distance between them”, it added.
