TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran on Wednesday called video and audio released by the Pentagon showing Iranian Revolutionary Guards boats confronting US warships in the Strait of Hormuz "fabricated," a state-run television station reported.
This image released by the US Navy Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008, and shot Sunday, Jan. 6 from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, shows a small blue boat, alleged to be Iranian, purportedly racing near the wake of US Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. [Agencies] |
"The footage released by the US Navy was compiled using file pictures and the audio has been fabricated," the English-language channel Press TV quoted an official in the Revolutionary Guards as saying.
The report did not give the name of the Revolutionary Guard figure and did not offer more details about how the official knew the footage was "fabricated."
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as President Bush flew from Washington to Israel, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley echoed Bush's earlier denunciation of the Iranian move as "provocative."
"This is a provocative act — not a smart thing to do, and they are going to have to take responsibility for the consequences, if they do it again," Hadley said, adding that his comments should not be seen as a threat.
The Pentagon on Tuesday released a four-minute, 20-second video that included audio showing small Iranian boats swarming around US warships in the Persian Gulf. In the recording, a man speaking in heavily accented English threatened, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes."
The Iranian boats appeared to ignore repeated warnings from the US ships, including horn blasts and radio transmissions, according to the video, which was shot from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper.
From the Hopper, after spotting the approaching Iranian boats, a US Navy crew member says over the radio: "This is coalition warship. I am engaged in transit passage in accordance with international law. Intend no harm."
