US Coast Guard ship fired around 30 warning shots at Iranian fast boats in latest tense encounter
CNN
A US Coast Guard ship fired approximately 30 warning shots as a "large group" of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy fast boats conducted "unsafe and unprofessional maneuvers" near US naval vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Six US Navy vessels were escorting a guided missile submarine, the USS Georgia, when they encountered a group of 13 IRGCN "fast attack boats," Kirby told reporters. The boats approached the US Navy vessels "at high speed," coming as close as within 150 yards. After the US tried "all the appropriate and established procedures involving hip blasts, bridge to bridge radio transmission and other ways of communicating," US Coast Guard Cutter Maui fired approximately 30 warning shots, Kirby said. Following the second round of warning shots, the IRGCN fast boats "broke contact."Venezuelan authorities are investigating opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for alleged treason after she expressed support for a US bipartisan bill that seeks to block Washington from doing business with any entity that has commercial ties with the government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
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