Navy escorts US-flagged ships in response to Iran

U.S. Navy ships have begun escorting U.S.-flagged commercial vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a defense official.

The move is in response to increasingly provocative behavior by the Iranian navy in the strait within the last week, the official said.  

{mosads}Early Tuesday morning, Iranian navy vessels approached and fired warning shots across the bridge of the Maersk Tigris, a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship, and subsequently boarded and detained it and its crew. 

On Friday, the same types of Iranian ships surrounded and harassed a U.S.-flagged cargo vessel named the Maersk Kensington. 

The official said “this is being done as a result of the interception and the detainment of the Maersk Tigris on April 28,” as well as the incident with the Kensington. 

The commercial vessels are being accompanied by “combat ships to prevent harassment or possible interdiction,” said the official.

The official did not say how many U.S. warships would accompany each merchant vessel but said “we have [a] sufficient number of forces to meet the accompanying mission.”

Iranian officials say the Maersk shipping line owes it money, but the two incidents occurred just days after Iran tried to send a nine-ship convoy to Yemen in a suspected effort to resupply Houthi rebels. The U.S. sent an aircraft carrier and a destroyer to the area in response, and the convoy turned around.