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Iranian Patrol Boat Fires On US Cargo Ship

Iranian Patrol Boat Fires On US Cargo Ship

The Pentagon has said an Iranian patrol boat has fired shots over the bow of a US cargo ship and ordered it to sail deeper into Iranian waters.

US aircraft and the destroyer, USS Farragut, have responded to a distress call from the MV Maersk Tigris, which was travelling through the Strait of Hormuz when it came under fire.

At least five Iranian ships are reported to have intercepted the vessel, which has no US citizens on board. It is thought to be heading towards Larak Island.

US Army Colonel Steve Warren said the cargo ship initially ignored the patrol boats but complied when the vessels fired several warning shots.

Iranian forces are also thought to have boarded the Maersk Tigris, which is flagged to the Marshall Islands.

Tracking data has shown the 65,000-ton container ship is off the Iranian coast between the islands of Qeshm and Hormuz. It was listed as sailing from Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, and was bound for the UAE port of Jebel Ali.

Rickmers Shipmanagement is the Singapore-based company that chartered the Maersk Tigris.

Spokesman Cor Radings told Danish TV the company was concerned for the 24 crew members on board, most of whom come from Eastern Europe and Asia.

He said the vessel was running along a normal commercial route between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and that the company did not yet know why Iran had stopped it.

Nearly a third of all seaborne-traded oil (30%) passes through the Strait of Hormuz - around 17 million barrels of oil per day - according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Iran has threatened to block the strait in protest at the sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme.

At its narrowest point, the strait is just 21 miles across - with two-mile wide navigable channels for inbound and outbound shipping.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon denied reports that the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt had been ordered to intercept Iranian vessels thought to be arming rebels in Yemen.