US ship fires warning shots at Iranian fast boats

A United States Coast Guard ship that was accompanying a guided-missile submarine and other vessels near the Strait of Hormuz fired warning shots at Iranian fast boats that approached in an ‘‘unsafe’’ manner yesterday, the Pentagon’s spokesman said. A large group of fast boats controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came as close as 140 metres to the US ships when a Coast Guard cutter fired about 30 warning shots from a .50-calibre machine gun, spokesman John Kirby said. The Iranian vessels were behaving ‘‘very aggressively’’, he said. The encounter is the latest sign of US-Iran tensions in the Middle East and the second time a US ship fired at an Iranian vessel in recent weeks. Late last month, the US released footage of the USS Firebolt firing at Iranian fast boats.