UPDATE (4:57 PM PST) Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency is reporting that the U.S. ships had illegally entered Iranian waters near the highly sensitive territory of Farsi island. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have a major naval base on the island with prolific military activities. As a result, the area is entirely restricted to visitors. Even Iranian authorities need special permission to enter the island. Iranian officials have confiscated US property, including GPS equipment from the American sailors. The IRGC is claiming that the confiscated equipment will “prove that the American ships were ‘snooping’ around in Iranian waters.”
(4:35 PM PST) Speculation about US activity in the Persian Gulf continues to grow. The two captured navy vessels were small unit riverine crafts, designed for close-range navigation. The Pentagon is claiming that these two ships experienced “mechanical” difficulties and veered off course, while moving between Kuwait and Bahrain (300 nautical miles apart, a distance usually traveled by large carrier vessels).
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