Iranian TV Airs Video Of US-Iran Naval Encounter In Persian Gulf
Iran aired video Thursday of its boats and U.S. naval ships in the Persian Gulf in an apparent attempt to show that there was no confrontation between the vessels.
The grainy 5-minute, 20-second video showed a man speaking into a handheld radio, with three U.S. ships floating in the distance. It appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 yards from the American warships.
The footage did not show any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. vessels or any provocation. But the short clip likely did not show Sunday's entire encounter, which U.S. Navy officials described as threatening, and said lasted about 20 minutes.
A Pentagon official said the video appeared to have been taken around the time of Sunday's confrontation but that the controversial parts of the incident were edited out. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the video.
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AP | LAUREN FRAYER | January 10, 2008 10:47 AM