US, UK navies scramble to help ship ‘harassed’ by fast-attack craft from Iran

Three fast-attack Revolutionary Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the merchant ship at a close distance, the US Navy said

It prompted a US guided-missile destroyer and Royal Navy frigate to respond – with the latter launching a helicopter – to ‘de-escalate’ the situation

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The British frigate HMS Lancaster sails in the Strait of Hormuz last month as Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels follow behind it. Photo: AP

Published: 1:46pm, 5 Jun 2023

The United States’ Navy said on Monday its sailors and Britain’s Royal Navy came to the aid of a ship in the crucial Strait of Hormuz after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “harassed” it.

Three fast-attack Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the merchant ship at a close distance on Sunday afternoon, the US Navy said in a statement. It offered black-and-white images it said came from a US Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon overhead, which showed three small ships close to the commercial ship.

The US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Lancaster responded to the incident, with the Lancaster launching a helicopter.

“The situation de-escalated around an hour later when the merchant vessel confirmed the fast-attack craft departed the scene,” the Navy said. “The merchant ship continued transiting the Strait of Hormuz without further incident.”

Three Iranian Revolutionary Guard fast-attack vessels near a commercial ship in this still image taken from surveillance video from a US Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon. photo: US Navy via AP

The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, sees 20 per cent of the world’s oil pass through it.

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