By JON GAMBRELL and ISABEL DEBREApril 27, 2021 GMT
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) A remotely piloted boat packed with explosives targeted the Saudi port of Yanbu in the Red Sea on Tuesday, the kingdom said, with the blast sending black smoke into the sky off the coast.
Saudi Arabia claimed to have intercepted and destroyed the attack boat. However, private security firms suggested commercial traffic near the port may have been hit in the assault.
Details remained scarce, but the incident comes after a series of attacks on shipping in the wider Mideast region amid a shadow war between Iran and Israel and against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations between Tehran and world powers over Iran’s tattered nuclear deal.
The U.S. crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio, five short blasts from the ships horns, and while the (Iranian) Harth 55 responded to the bridge-to-bridge radio queries, they continued the unsafe maneuvers, Rebarich said. After approximately three hour of the U.S. issuing warning and conducting defensive maneuvers, the (Iranian) vessels maneuvered away from the U.S. ships and opened distance between them.
An image taken from video released by the U.S. Navy on April 26, 2021, shows a U.S. sailor taking photos as an Iranian vessel, left, passes in an unsafe and unprofessional manner in front of a U.S. Coast Guard vessel in the Persian Gulf on April 2, 2021.
A remotely piloted boat packed with explosives targeted the Saudi port of Yanbu in the Red Sea on Tuesday, the kingdom said, with the blast sending black smoke into the sky off the coast.
US and Iranian warships had a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf earlier this month, the first such incident in about a year amid wider turmoil in the region over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal, the US Navy said yesterday.
Footage released by the US Navy showed a ship commanded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps cut in front of the USCGC <i>Monomoy</i>, causing the US Coast Guard vessel to come to an abrupt stop with its engine smoking on April 2.
The Guard also did the same with another US vessel, the USCGC Wrangell, said US Commander Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman