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Pentagon: Iranians harassed Navy ships

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(CBS/AP) -- In what U.S. officials called a serious provocation, Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats harassed and provoked three U.S. Navy ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, threatening to explode the American vessels.

U.S. forces were on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats in the early Sunday incident, when the boats turned and moved away, a Pentagon official said. "It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we've seen yet," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday that the confrontation between Iranian boats and U.S. Navy ships over the weekend was "something normal" and was resolved. It suggested the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels.

The incident occurred at about 5 a.m. local time Sunday.

CBS News has learned from Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman that the three ships - the guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal, the guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper and the guided missile frigate USS Ingraham - were transiting the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf when they were approached by 5 Iranian fast boats, some of which were assessed to be visibly armed.

The small boats began charging the U.S. ships, dropping boxes in the water in front of the Navy vessels and forcing the U.S. ships to take evasive maneuvers, the Pentagon official said.

CBS News Correspondent Vicki Barker reports that, according to Pentagon officials, the Iranians reportedly radioed something to the effect of "We're coming at you and you'll explode in a couple minutes," although there was no precise transcript of communications that the two forces exchanged available.

There were no injuries but the official said there could have been, because the Iranian boats turned away "literally at the very moment that U.S. forces were preparing to open fire" in self defense.

Whitman said the Iranians' actions displayed "wreckless, dangerous, and potentially hostile intent." He also said that the U.S. ships followed "appropriate protocols" and were in international waters.

The entire incident took about 15-20 minutes duration, according to the Pentagon.

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said he was not aware of any plans to lodge a formal protest.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said the weekend incident between Iranian boats and U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz was "something normal" and was resolved.

"Without specific reference to this incident in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States will confront Iranian behavior where it seeks to do harm either to us or to our friends and allies in the region," McCormack told reporters. "There is wide support for that within the region and certainly that's not going to change."

Whitman said the Pentagon will work with State and National Security Council officials to determine "the appropriate way to address this with the Iranian government."

Historical tensions between the two nations have increased in recent years over Washington's charge that Tehran has been developing nuclear weapons and supplying and training Iraqi insurgents using roadside bombs - the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

According to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, White House spokesperson Tony Fratto said the Bush administration urges the Iranians "to abstain from such provocative acts that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."

In another incident off its coast, Iranian Revolutionary Guard sailors last March captured 15 British sailors and held them for nearly two weeks.

The 15 sailors from HMS Cornwall, including one woman, were captured on March 23. Iran claims the crew, operating in a small patrol craft, had intruded into Iranian waters - a claim denied by Britain.

This weekend's incident comes as President Bush's first major trip to the Middle East is approaching. While scheduled to meet the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other regional nations Jan. 9-16, Mr. Bush is expected to try to bolster the troubled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians but is also likely to seek backing for U.S. concerns about Iran.

Iran is under two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms, and Washington is pushing for additional U.N. penalties. But a recent U.S. intelligence assessment that it probably shut down a clandestine weapons program three years ago have led to increased resistance to such a move from permanent Security Council members Russia and China, which have strategic and trade ties with Tehran.

At about this time last year, Mr. Bush announced he was sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf region in a show of force against Iran.

The U.S. Navy quietly scaled back to one carrier group several months later. But while the two were there, they staged two major exercises off Iran's coast.

The war games amounted to U.S. muscle-flexing at a time when Tehran increasingly was at loggerheads with the international community over its disputed nuclear program and threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz for oil transports in case of a U.S. military strike on Iran.

Since then, there have been diplomatic overtures aimed at calming tensions. A May 28 meeting concerning security in Iraq between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze between the two countries.

A planned Dec. 18 meeting between Iranian and American security, military and diplomatic experts was canceled a few days before it was to be held. At the time, Iranian officials said it was a scheduling problem while U.S. officials referred questions to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

And in the past month or so, U.S. officials have said Tehran appears to have slowed or halted the flow of illegal weapons across the frontier between Iran and Iraq. Iran has denied the arms smuggling accusations, insisting that it is doing its best to help stabilize its embattled western neighbor.

Iranians recently were reported to be upset that although they contributed to the improving security situation in Iraq, U.S. officials have not done enough to acknowledge it.

The United States maintains nearly 40,000 troops in Gulf countries other than Iraq, with the largest group in Kuwait and others in Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

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The Associated Press and CBS News contributed to this report.