Iran’s Navy reported on Friday that it had located two US Navy “small data collecting vessels” “abandoned on the international trade route,” whereupon it captured them.
The Jamaran destroyer of the Iranian Navy came across multiple tiny data collection vessels, according to Iranian media, and urged the equipment’s controller to “stop this sort of behaviour and move and alter the direction of the movement.”
The destroyer eventually came across the vessels again after continuing to circle the area for a while, stopped, and assumed control of them before releasing them to assure the safety of navigation. “Stop this sort of behaviour and move and modify the direction of movement,” the Navy ordered the controllers.
The third time the vessel came into contact with the group of vessels, it “took steps to control and halt the vessels in order to avert probable terrorist attacks and the emergence of unanticipated incidents,” according to the Iranian Fars News Agency.
The ships were “sailing out of control, creating instability, and endangering the safety of boats,” according to the Iranian Navy.
The Iranian Navy seized the ships, put them in “a secure spot,” and the US Navy took control of them from there.
The US Navy said on Tuesday that it had stopped an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) support ship from seizing a US 5th Fleet unmanned surface ship in the Arabian Gulf on Monday night.
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the US 5th Fleet, US Naval Forces Central Command, and Combined Maritime Forces, characterised IRGCN’s conduct as “flagrant, unjustified, and inconsistent with the behaviour of a professional maritime force.” As they support a rules-based international order throughout the area, US naval forces “remain watchful and will continue to fly, sail, and operate whenever international law allows.”