British and US naval vessels rush to aid ship ‘harassed’ by Iranian fast attack boats in Strait of Hormuz
- HMS Lancaster and USS McFaul raced to intercept the Iranian speedboats
- The boats, manned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, harassed a merchant ship
The ships of the Royal Navy and the US Navy have chased off a group of Iranian military speedboats that were “harassing” a merchant vessel in the Persian Gulf, the US Navy has revealed.
Three fast attack boats manned by armed troops of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards approached the merchant ship as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday afternoon.
The US Navy destroyer USS McFaul and the Royal Navy frigate HMS Lancaster responded to the incident, with the Lancaster launching a helicopter to deter the Iranian boats from making any attempt to board the commercial vessel.
The Navy has released a pair of photos taken by a Boeing P-8 Poseidon — a reconnaissance aircraft that flew over the region to provide more information — showing a trio of small ships in pursuit of the merchant ship.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, sees 20% of the world’s oil pass through it and is one of the world’s most strategically important bottlenecks.
Although the Navy did not identify the ship involved, ship tracking data from MarineTraffic.com, analyzed by The Associated Press, showed that the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Venture erratically veered course as it passed through the strait at the time of the incident .
The location also matched information about the incident from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military operation that monitors traffic in the region.
The British frigate HMS Lancaster sails in the Strait of Hormuz. The Lancaster launched a helicopter to chase the Iranian fast boats and discourage them from making any attempt to board the merchant ship
Iranian fast boats are seen within meters of the merchant ship before being chased away by British and US naval vessels
This still image from surveillance video of a US Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon shows three Iranian Revolutionary Guards fast attack ships near a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz Sunday, June 4, 2023
“The situation escalated about an hour later when the merchant ship confirmed that the fast attack craft had left the scene,” the navy said.
“The merchant ship passed through the Strait of Hormuz without further incident.”
The ship’s registered manager, Trust Bulkers of Athens, Greece, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There have been a series of naval incidents involving Iran since the US unilaterally withdrew from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
The suspected US seizure of the Suez Rajan, a tanker affiliated with a US private equity firm that allegedly carried sanctioned Iranian crude off the coast of Singapore, may have prompted Tehran to recently capture the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet.
That ship was carrying Kuwaiti crude oil for energy company Chevron. from San Ramon, California.
Although authorities have not acknowledged the seizure of the Suez Rajan, the ship is now off the coast of Galveston, Texas, according to ship tracking data analyzed by the AP.
Meanwhile, Iran separately seized the Niovi, a Panamanian-flagged tanker, which was leaving a dry dock in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, bound for Fujairah on the UAE’s east coast.
While there was no cargo on board, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence seen by the AP showed that in July 2020, the Niovi received oil from a ship then known as the Oman Pride.
In August 2021, the US Treasury Department cleared the Oman Pride and others associated with the ship as being “involved in an international oil smuggling network” that supported the Quds Force, the Guard’s expeditionary force operating throughout the Middle East. East operates.
Alleged emails published online by Wikiran, a website that requests leaked documents from the Islamic Republic, suggest that cargo carried by the Niovi was being resold without authorization to companies in China.
Satellite images analyzed by the AP show those two ships were anchored off Bandar Abbas, Iran.