Video Shows U.S. Destroyer’s Very Intimate Standoff With Iranian Vessels Over Seized Oil Tanker (Updated)
Iran’s raid on an oil tanker resulted in an incredibly close encounter between its gunboats and a U.S. Navy destroyer.
Iran’s raid on an oil tanker resulted in an incredibly close encounter between its gunboats and a U.S. Navy destroyer.
The use of small unmanned aircraft to attack the tanker M/T Mercer Street underscores the growing threat that drones pose on and off the battlefield.
An armed group had boarded the ship in the Gulf of Oman and was reportedly trying to sail it to Iran.
Reports of a “non-piracy” maritime hijacking in the Middle East come just days after a fatal drone strike on an Israeli-operated tanker.
The first reported photos showing the tanker Mercer Street after the drone strike have also now appeared.
The attack on the Israeli-operated ship claimed two lives and comes amid a shadowy tit-for-tat maritime campaign being waged by Iran and Israel.
After 37 years of service, the Kharg went down in the Gulf of Oman in circumstances that are still unclear.
The reported attack on an Israeli commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman follows attacks on an Iranian nuclear site and covert mothership.
The last time the Iranians trotted out the mock aircraft carrier for an exercise, they eventually blew it up.
A simulated strike on an American carrier is not only a training opportunity, it is a highly symbolic act that fits right into the regime’s playbook.