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Iranian patrol boat trains its weapon on US Navy helicopter
11 / 29 / 16
A US Navy Seahawk helicopter had what the Navy is calling an "unsafe and unprofessional encounter" with an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps patrol boat Saturday near the Strait of Hormuz.
The helicopter was flying overhead when the Iranians trained a weapon on it, according to a defense official. The Iranians did not fire. The event took place as the helicopter was escorting the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on its way out of the Persian Gulf.
Iranian ships regularly approach US Navy vessels in that area of the strait.
In August the USS Squall fired three warning shots into the water after boats belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps came within close proximity to American warships.
The US military has expressed its concern regarding what it sees as Iran's provocative naval actions in the gulf.
"If they continue to test us, we are going to respond, and we are going to protect ourselves and our partners," Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of US Central Command, said at a Pentagon news conference in August following the incident with the Squall.
A US defense official told CNN in August that the number of these unsafe incidents had already surpassed the entire amount for 2015.
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