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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| 'Iranian fighters may fly over U.S. forces' |
| 2010-04-30 |
| A senior Iranian Air Force officer does not rule out reports that an Iranian fighter jet might have flown over a U.S. aircraft carrier last week in the Arabian Sea. The incident was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. According to the report, a plane belonging to the Iranian Navy was flying as low as 300 feet near the USS Eisenhower on April 21. The Eisenhower was in the northern Arabian Sea when the Iranian maritime patrol aircraft flew within 1,000 yards of the vessel, U.S. military officials claimed. Mohammad Alavi, deputy commander of the Iranian Air Force said that the fighter jet may have come close to the U.S. aircraft carrier during a routine patrol. ""Iran has scheduled flights in the air corridor in the altitude of up to 20,000 feet, and its plane might have come close to the U.S. aircraft carrier while flying in this corridor,"" Fars news agency quoted Alavi as saying on Thursday. He added, ""Nobody can criticize such flights because they are being conducted within the framework of international law. We conduct routine reconnaissance flights with different aircrafts, including drones, and they may have come across the U.S. forces."" |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #6 Capt. Will Rogers the former skipper of the USS Vincennes must be shaking his head. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-04-30 21:15 |
| #5 Bottom of tent, meet camel's nose.... |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2010-04-30 21:08 |
| #4 It will become a regular occurance. Obama will do nothing. His inaction will only lead to escalation by Iran. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2010-04-30 18:03 |
| #3 No, let's splash the next one when it comes within weapons range. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-04-30 17:59 |
| #2 see if this becomes a regular occurrence.. |
| Posted by: newc 2010-04-30 17:57 |
| #1 From Debka: The US Fifth fleet and USS Eisenhower refrained from shooting an Iranian spy plane collecting intelligence from the American carrier on April 21 because they are under orders not to respond to hostile Iranian acts without permission direct from Washington. Gulf governments fear US military passivity will encourage Tehran to be bolder and more provocative, emulating Pyongyang which got away with sinking a South Korean vessel scot-free. The Iranian Fokker F27 spy plane hovered for 20 minutes 900 meters over the carrier and no more than 250 meters away. To try and explain this incident away, US naval sources Wednesday, April 28, claimed the Iranian plane was unarmed and its encounter with the US carrier was not of a threatening nature, although irregular. Gulf sources, talking to DEBKAfile, wondered out loud if the United States would also turn a blind eye to an Iranian attack that caused the sinking of a Saudi, UAE or Israeli ship sailing in the Gulf, as they did in the case of South Korea. |
| Posted by: tipper 2010-04-30 16:30 |