The Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) launched rockets near the U.S. aircraft-carrier Harry S. Truman and other warships as they were entering the Gulf on Saturday, giving only brief notice in a “highly provocative” act, a U.S. military spokesman said on Wednesday.
NBC News first reported news of the rocket tests, citing unnamed U.S. military officials. It said the IRGC were conducting a live-fire exercise and the Truman came within about 1,500 yards (1,370 meters) of a rocket.
Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday that Iranian IRGC naval vessels fired “several unguided rockets” about 1,370 meters from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the USS Bulkeley destroyer and a French frigate, the FS Provence. Raines said commercial sea traffic also was nearby.
Raines said the Iranian vessels announced over maritime radio that they would carry out a live fire exercise only 23 minutes beforehand.
The Iranian regime’s “actions were highly provocative,” Raines said. “Firing weapons so close to passing coalition ships and commercial traffic within an internationally recognized maritime traffic lane is unsafe, unprofessional and inconsistent with international maritime law.”
The Truman, accompanied by the two other warships from the U.S.-led coalition supporting air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, was entering the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on a routine transit when the incident occurred, Raines said in an email to Reuters.
The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet is based in nearby Bahrain, on the southern coast of the Gulf.