Fourth Incident This Week: USS Squall Fires Warning Shots At Iranian Navy Boat

On Wednesday for the second day in a row, and fourth time this week, there was an incident between the U.S. Navy and an Iranian Boat.  Wednesday’s incident seemed to be an increase in tensions between the hapless Obama administration and the terrorist Iranian regime our President has been making concessions to for the past four years. This time after an Iranian boat threatened a US Navy patrol craft, our naval heroes fired three warning shots. Any ramp up of aggression would include shooting at and sinking the Iranian boat.

The incident occurred at the northern end of the Persian Gulf when two American patrol crafts and a Kuwaiti Navy ship were also harassed by the Revolutionary Guard boat.

When the Iranian boat came within 200 yards of the USS Squall, the American craft fired flares and had a radio conversation with the Iranian Crew. Then following standard maritime procedures, the Navy fired the three shots into the water to ensure the Iranians understood they needed to leave the immediate area.

Reuters is reporting that a defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said three warning shots were fired from a .50 caliber gun after warning flares did not work.

The incident started with three Iranian vessels, but there was only one Iranian vessel around by the time the warning shots were fired, the official said.

This is the fourth incident in the past week:

On Tuesday, four Iranian small boats “harassed” the USS Nitze, sailing near the guided missile destroyer in the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. Navy official told Fox News. The Nitze sent the Iranian boats an international maritime signal, five short blasts of the ship’s whistle, which is used when another vessel’s intentions are not understood or its indicated course is dangerous. At the same time, the Nitze also used visual warnings, firing 10 flares in the direction of the approaching vessels. Again, the destroyer got no response, the official said.

Then there were the earlier incidents. In January, Iran briefly detained 10 U.S. Navy sailors who mistakenly steered into Iranian waters, and December 2015 saw, Iranian ships fired rockets near U.S. warship and other vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, and a month later flew an unarmed drone over the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said incidents like this one “unnecessarily escalate tensions,” adding that the US doesn’t know Iran’s intentions.

Of course we know the Iranians intentions. Firstly, they believe the Strait of Hormuz is theirs. Should Iran control the strait they control the passage in which 30% of the world’s oil supply flows through.

And secondly they know they can.  Beginning with the the negotiations for the obscene P5+1 Nuclear deal when the Iranian foreign minister used to scream at John Kerry, through the Iranian missile tests, and the capture of the American sailors the day of the 2016 State of The Union Address, the hapless Obama government answered each affront by turning tail and begging them to stop, or like we did when the sailors were grabbed in January, and our other hostages were released later the same month, Obama paid ransom to get our people back.

With all of that appeasement, why would anyone expect Iran to do anything but escalate? They know Obama will not make them face consequences. I just pray that he allows our hero sailors to defend themselves.

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