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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,350470,00.html

Navy Fires Warning Flare as Iranian Boat Approaches in Persian Gulf

Friday, April 11, 2008

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy says one of its ships encountered a small Iranian high-speed boat in the central Persian Gulf. The Navy says the boat stayed away after the ship fired a flare.

Two other similar Iranian boats in the area did not approach as closely.

The USS Typhoon tried unsuccessfully to establish radio contact with the Iranian boat after it came within an estimated 200 yards of the Typhoon on Thursday, outside Iranian territorial waters. A Navy official says the ship then fired the flare and continued on its way northward without incident.

The official said Friday that the Iranian boats did not appear to have been armed.

It was at least the second U.S. Navy encounter with an aggressive Iranian high-speed boat this year. In January, Iranian boats made what the Navy called provocative moves near a U.S. ship in the Strait of Hormuz.