An Iranian warship briefly pointed a weapon on its deck at a U.S. military helicopter and coalition warship two weeks ago in the Gulf of Aden, a Defense official said Wednesday.
The two ships were just a few hundred yards apart when an Iranian crewmember pointed what is believed to have been an on-deck machine gun at the warship and the U.S. military helicopter that had just landed on that coalition ship’s deck.
However, the coalition warship and helicopter crew quickly noticed there was a cameraman standing right behind the Iranian gunner.
“Were they just trying to get cool pictures pointing at us? Were they making a propaganda film? Was some guy taking pictures to send to his girlfriend? We don’t know,” the Defense official said.
The entire incident lasted about a minute with no shots being fired and no action taken by the coalition warship. The U.S. helicopter stuck to its plan as well and left the deck on schedule, the official said. The official declined to identify the nationality of the coalition warship.
The U.S. Navy took photos of the incident, but has not publicly released them.
The official said it’s been several weeks since there have been any serious encounters with Iranian military ships, although on two recent occasions, U.S. Navy ships did sound their horns to warn Iranian ships they were too close, and those ships did move off to a longer distance.