The EU naval force on anti-piracy patrol off Somalia expressed doubts.
Rear Admiral Mahmud Musavi painted a picture of a massive sea battle in a meeting with reporters Saturday. He said the battle was fought in the Red Sea just north of the Bab el Mandeb.
He said the pirates in 30 to 50 speedboats attacked and tried to board two Iranian ships, which he did not name. He said the two ships Iran has on anti-piracy patrols—only one of which is a combat vessel—responded with alacrity and opened heavy fire on the speedboats, eventually driving them off.
The state news agency quoted the admiral as saying the naval victory should be regarded as a gift to the pious people of Iran for Eid-e Fetr.
The Iran Times asked the European Union Task Force conducting anti-piracy patrols off Somalia if such massed attacks were common. Timo Lange, a spokesman, answered by email saying the EU Task Force had never heard of such an attack. He said the typical pirate attack is launched from a single skiff, though occasionally there are two attack skiffs.
The claimed massive sea battle recalled an earlier report by the Iranian Navy that its seamen had boarded a boat seized by pirates several months ago and battled the pirates for 36 hours before taking control of the vessel.
While the Iranian Navy was claiming a sterling combat victory in the Red Sea, the US Navy said it was rescuing seaman from a small Iranian freighter that had been attacked and seized by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea.
The US Navy said seven Iranian and six Pakistani mariners had been crewing the Iranian-flagged MV Payam last week when attacked by pirates. The pirates took over the dhow and stripped it of fuel and other supplies, leaving the crewmen adrift without food or fuel to reach shore. They did still have a radio and broadcast emergency calls.
They were heard by a US Navy PC-3 Orion patrol aircraft, which radioed the destroyer USS Hue City, which rushed to the dhow, sending food, fuel, water and medics on board to help the crewmen.
Captain Daniel Uhls of the Hue City was quoted by the US Navy as saying this demonstrated the Navy’s commitment to the “safety of those in the region,” a seeming response to the charge of the Islamic Republic that the US Navy endangers security in the region by its mere presence.
This was the third such rescue of an Iranian boat and crew this year by the US Navy. Two weeks earlier, the USS James E. Williams rescued 10 Iranians from a burning boat in the Gulf of Oman. In January, the USS Kidd rescued 13 Iranian mariners and their boat after it was hijacked by pirates.