Iran speedboats 'intercept US navy ship'

Shafaq News/ Iran's state TV aired footage of speedboats of the country's paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intercepting a US vessel in the Gulf.

A US navy spokesperson said he was not aware of any such encounter at sea over the past days.

The Iranian broadcaster said that the footage was filmed from one of the IRGC speedboats. It shows a vessel with the US flag and several personnel on board as the speedboat appears to be chasing it. A voice is heard in Farsi saying, "Keep chasing them".

The report did not say when the encounter took place.

Commander Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the US navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said he was not aware of any sort of unsafe interaction with Iran in the last two days.

The report is the first such report in recent months.

In May, the Guard rejected the US navy's claim that fast-approaching Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz sparked a tense encounter a day after the US said the Revolutionary Guard sent 13 armed speedboats too close to US navy vessels in the Strait.

The United States at the time said a Coast Guard cutter fired warning shots when two of the Iranian boats came dangerously close.