The Navy converted two oil barges into floating bases for Special Operations Forces, and the US Army embarked attack helicopters aboard Navy ships. The American operation, lasting from July 1987 to September 1988, included several smaller efforts that resulted in the destruction of Iranian forces and the partial dismantling of Tehran’s fleet. In 1987, the United States approved Kuwait’s request to reflag its tankers as American vessels, in order to give the US Navy legal cover as its warships escorted the tankers through the Persian Gulf and past Iran’s own forces. More than once, the harassment – and the American response – have escalated into open air and naval warfare. Iranian forces have harassed Persian Gulf shipping off and on for decades. If all this seems familiar, it’s because it is. The extra forces would “defend US interests and safeguard freedom of navigation in the region,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said. It announced it would deploy a destroyer and F-16 and F-35 fighters to reinforce US forces – including F-22 stealth fighters and a pair of destroyers – already in the Middle East. It’s happened before.Īfter Iranian gunboats opened fire on the Bahamas-flagged tanker Richmond Voyager on July 5, the Pentagon finally lost patience. And twice in the span of just a couple weeks this spring, they succeeded – seizing one vessel whose crew they accused of colliding with an Iranian vessel, and another they claimed was involved in a legal dispute in Iran. Twenty times in the past three years, Iranian forces have tried to board foreign-flagged commercial vessels sailing through the narrow Strait of Hormuz into or out of the Persian Gulf.
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