Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization, on Saturday released footage of its speedboats confronting two U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz on August 17.
The IRGC claimed it forced U.S. Navy and Marine helicopters to land by threatening to shoot them down, a claim the Pentagon denied on Monday.
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The IRGC’s Navy has released a video of surveilling and intercepting USS Bataan and USS Thomas Hudner in the Strait of Hormuz on August 17, 2023.
The US warships have recently arrived in the region to stop Iran’s attacks against commercial vessels. pic.twitter.com/44wyYFZTzb— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) August 20, 2023
The IRGC published heavily edited footage through Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency that depicted small Iranian speedboats maneuvering near USS Bataan and USS Thomas Hudner in the Strait of Hormuz last Thursday. The clip was spliced to make it appear the squadron of tiny Iranian craft “intercepted” the U.S. ships.
The IRGC included footage of Marine UH-1Y Venom and AH-1 Viper attack helicopters, plus a Navy MH-60S Knight Hawk helicopter. The voiceover from an IRGC officer includes a threat to shoot all three helicopters down if they did not land.
“Your helicopter is in the vicinity of my vessels, sometimes going into Iranian territorial waters. Advised to take them on your boat and do not enter … Iranian territorial waters. If you do not obey my orders, we will open fire on your helicopters, over,” said the voiceover, as translated by i24 News on Sunday.
This could have been a voiceover added to the clip later, rather than a genuine radio transmission sent to the American ships on August 17, an impression bolstered by the amusingly overwrought music the IRGC threw in.
A UH-1Y Venom helicopter is seen en route to Camp Schwab on Okinawa, Japan. (Cpl. Hailey D. Clay)
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday there were no reports of American helicopters forced to land under duress during the Strait of Hormuz transit.
“We’ve seen this from them before pushing out, I don’t know if it’s propaganda, but I would say like, untrue statements, and that just is not accurate,” she said.
The U.S. ships were part of an American buildup to discourage Iranian piracy in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. In early August, the U.S. offered to put armed sailors and Marines aboard commercial vessels to counter Iranian attempts to seize them.
“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital seaway that has a huge impact on seaborne trade around the world. It’s a critical choke point in the maritime world. And we have seen threats by Iran to affect that chokepoint,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on August 3.
In this photo released by the U.S. Navy, the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan travels through the Red Sea on August 8, 2023. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Riley Gasdia/U.S. Navy, via AP)
USS Bataan is an amphibious assault ship that resembles a small aircraft carrier, protected by USS Thomas Hudner, a guided missile destroyer. The Bataan’s three-ship Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) includes a third vessel, the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall, but it did not appear in the footage released by the IRGC.
The ARG, which includes about 4,000 personnel, was ordered to redeploy to the Persian Gulf in late July to respond to Iran’s escalating threats. The Bataan is carrying elements of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit who have been trained to operate aboard commercial vessels.
I24 News suggested the IRGC put out the aggressive video clip to signal Iran’s anger over the United States offloading oil from a tanker called the Suez Rajan apparently seized by the U.S. in 2022 for violating sanctions.
In this satellite photo provided by Planet Labs PBC, vessels identified as the Virgo, left, and the Suez Rajan, by the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, are seen in the South China Sea on February 13, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
The exact status of the Marshall Islands-flagged ship is unclear but, for some reason, it suddenly decided to sail from Singapore to the Gulf of Mexico and sit off the coast of Galveston until Sunday, when ship-tracking data showed another tanker pulling up alongside and taking the Suez Rajan’s oil cargo onboard. The U.S. government has yet to make a formal statement about seizing the ship, but Iran has threatened to retaliate if the oil was transferred.
“We hereby declare that we would hold any oil company that sought to unload our crude from the vessel responsible and we also hold America responsible. The era of hit and run is over, and if they hit, they should expect to be struck back,” IRGC Rear Adm. Alireza Tangsiri said in July. That retaliation would probably take the form of Iran seizing more ships in the Strait of Hormuz.