The US Navy on Saturday released a black and white video it said was taken by a US helicopter showing an Iranian Revolutionary Guards vessel firing unguided rockets on Dec. 26 near warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman, in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran on Dec. 31 denied that its Revolutionary Guards vessels had launched the rockets as the US claimed, with a Revolutionary Guards spokesman saying the “false” accusation was “akin to psychological warfare.”
The US Navy said the infrared radar footage showed an Iranian “fast inshore attack craft” launching several rockets on Dec. 26 “in close proximity” to the Truman, the guided missile destroyer USS Bulkeley, the French naval frigate FS Provence and commercial ships in the busy waterway.
The dispute underscored the ongoing tensions between the US and Iran, despite last year’s international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
The video, taken by a Seahawk helicopter, runs for about 30 seconds. The navy said the rockets were fired “within an internationally recognized maritime traffic lane” as the Truman and the other ships were passing through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf.
The US military on Dec. 29 made public its account of the incident. A US Central Command spokesman at the time called the Iranian actions “highly provocative, unsafe and unprofessional,” and said they called into question Iran’s commitment to the security of a waterway vital to international commerce.
The US Central Command also said at the time that Iran had provided only 23 minutes of advance notification of its intention to fire rockets. It said the Truman and the two other warships were part of the US-led coalition supporting air strikes against Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria.
Iran and six world powers, including the US, reached a deal in July last year to remove certain US, EU and UN sanctions on Tehran in exchange for Iran accepting limits on its nuclear program.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of