US navy fires warning shots after ‘harassment’ from Iranian vessels

The US navy has fired 30 warning shots at 13 Iranian vessels who “harassed” American ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Pentagon officials have said.

John F Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, confirmed that the ships fired warning shots on Monday after the vessels “failed to heed warnings to move away to a safe distance”.

The two Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels, which were armed with machine guns, conducted “unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvres” close to the ships.

According to Mr Kirby, the navy exhausted all other attempts to warn the ships including blasting a horn, bridge-to-bridge radio transmissions, and “other ways of communicating”.