Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard said on Saturday that US navy ships came close to its vessels in the Gulf and shot flares.

The USS Nimitz and an accompanying battleship drew close to a rocket-bearing Iranian vessel on Friday and sent a helicopter near a number of vessels close to the Resalat oil and gas platform, the Guard said in a statement published by its official news site, Sepah News. “The Americans made a provocative and unprofessional move by issuing a warning and shooting flares at vessels,” the statement said. “Islam’s warriors, without paying attention to this unconventional and unusual behaviour from the American vessels, continued their mission in the area and the aircraft carrier and accompanying battleship left the area.”

The US navy’s Bahrain-based fifth fleet said the incident happened while one of its helicopters was on a routine patrol in international airspace. The aircraft saw several Guard vessels approaching US ships “at a high rate of speed” and sent out flares after receiving no response when it tried to establish communications, the navy said. That prompted the Iranian boats to halt their approach.(theguardian)…[+]