IRAN fires missile 1500 yards from US Aircraft Carrier

IRAN fires missile 1500 yards from US Aircraft Carrier!
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Iran performed an unannounced live-fire exercise 1500 yards from US Aircraft Carrier, U.S.S. Harry S. Truman, drawing some slight criticism from the Pentagon.

Navy releases video showing Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels firing rockets near U.S. warships

The US Navy claims the 45-second footage released on Saturday, was shot from a Seahawk helicopter last month.
It says the footage shows what appears to be Iranian boats firing rockets.

The Navy has said the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, the USS Bulkeley destroyer and a French frigate were nearby at the time. Commercial vessels were also reportedly nearby at the time raising tensions between the two nations despite the recent nuclear deal.

The Navy said it released the footage in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, though it also comes as US ally Saudi Arabia has cut ties to the Islamic Republic following attacks on diplomatic posts there after the kingdom's execution of a Shiite cleric.

The 45 seconds of black-and-white December 26 footage, which the Navy said was shot from a Seahawk helicopter, shows what appears to be an oil tanker passing by.

A flash appears on the left side of the video and after zooming in, it shows small boats the Navy said were Iranian firing rockets.

Iran reveals video of U.S. Navy ship
On January 12, 2016, an Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle flew over the U.S. aircraft carrier the USS Harry S. Truman in the Arabian Gulf.

The Strait of Hormuz is only about 21 miles wide at its narrowest point.

Ships traversing the chokepoint have even less room to maneuver. The shipping lane in either direction is only two miles wide, with a two-mile buffer zone between them.

The US Navy's 5th Fleet is based in nearby Bahrain, on the southern coast of the Gulf. It conducts anti-piracy patrols in the greater Gulf and serves as a regional counterbalance to Iran.

US and Iranian forces clashed in the Strait of Hormuz in the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war.

On April 18, 1988, the United States attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sank or damaged six Iranian vessels, including two naval frigates, in Operation Praying Mantis.

That came after the near-sinking of the missile frigate USS Samuel B Roberts by an Iranian mine.

A few months later, in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the strait mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 passengers and crew onboard.

The shoot-down of the jet came shortly after the US vessel reported coming under fire from Iranian speedboats.

Tensions have persisted in the strait even into this year. Iran sank a replica of a US aircraft carrier in February near the strait and it earlier tested out so-called 'suicide drones' it said could crash into naval vessels.

Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship and later released it in May after its forces had earlier surrounded a US-flagged cargo ship transiting the strait.

That caused the 5th Fleet to escort commercial ships traveling in the Gulf for a short time.

Iran and world powers led by the United States agreed to a landmark nuclear deal earlier this year to limit Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear arms.

The deal reached with moderate President Hassan Rouhani's administration has been panned by Iranian hard-liners, and in the months since, Iran has conducted missile tests criticized by the United States, as well as aired footage on state television of an underground missile base.

In recent days, regional tensions have been escalated even higher as Iran and Saudi Arabia face off after the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and the storming of the kingdom's diplomatic posts in Iran.

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