U.S. Navy Fires on Boat in Persian Gulf
But the incident is not believed to have involved Iran, which has a history of harassment in the region.
| Posted Monday, July 16, 2012, at 2:36 PM
Photo by Nasser Younes/AFP/Getty Images.
A U.S. Navy ship on Monday fired on an approaching boat in the Persian Gulf, killing one and injuring three other passengers, a U.S. military official tells ABC News.
A Navy spokesperson told the network that the oil supply ship U.S.N.S. Rappahannock's security team fired a .50-caliber machine gun at a "small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the U.S. ship" off the coast of Jebel Ali, the largest port in the Gulf region.
The official said that the vessel was, in the words of ABC, "a white pleasure craft." United Arab Emirates officials, however, said that it appeared to be a fishing boat. Regardless, the course of action taken by the security team—which included at least one warning shot—was described as standard procedure for Navy ships in the area.
The incident remains under investigation, although no one appears to suspect terrorism or any involvement from Iran, which has a history of harassing American ships in the area. "I can't emphasize enough that this has nothing to do with Iran," the official told ABC.
