(RepublicanNews.org) – Iran’s IRGC released its latest piece of propaganda on August 20th, in which American military helicopters appear to lose a game of chicken with a group of Persian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz. The video was spliced together in a heavily edited fashion and came complete with soundtrack-style background music.
The footage, which was taken on August 17th and eventually posted to Twitter, begins by showing what appears to be video from an Iranian drone of the USS Bataan and USS Thomas as they make their way through international waters in the Persian Gulf. Helicopters can be seen preparing to take off from the Bataan, a marine amphibious assault ship.
The clip then cuts to a long line of IRGC speedboats that appear to be swarming and surrounding the two ships. As the Iranian boats pull up alongside American forces, naval and marine helicopters lift off and begin to fly around the flotilla. In crisp English, a member of the IRGC then gets on the radio and tells the American choppers they will be shot down if they don’t land.
Although the Iranians never receive a verbal response from the pilots, it appears to viewers that their threat was successful because the helicopters are shown landing back on their ship. The video concludes by showing the IRGC speeding away from the scene of their seemingly successful military interdiction.
A day after the Iranians posted their footage to Twitter, the Deputy Press Secretary for the Pentagon told reporters that no reports had been received that indicated American helicopters had been forced to return to their ships in the Strait.
Though U.S. naval encounters with IRGC speedboats are relatively common in the region, there is speculation that the latest incident is related to an American threat to place Marines on commercial ships traveling through the area. Marines have been training for the possibility in Bahrain for weeks.
Copyright 2023, RepublicanNews.org
