Thread: CNN: US fires the first shot in the Persian Gulf, one fatality reported

US Ship Mistakenly Fires On Friendly Boat Off Dubai, As Russia Condemns Saudi Treatment Of Religious Protesters


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/16/2012 11:53 -0400

• Abu Dhabi
• Dubai
• Middle East
• None
• Saudi Arabia

Those trigger happy US sailors are causing some diplomatic headaches again for Hillary Clinton who this time has no Syrian anti-aircraft missiles to blame, by firing on a friendly ship, killing one and injuring three, off the coast of Dubai. Per the AP: "A U.S. Consulate official in Dubai says an American vessel has fired on a boat off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, killing one person and injuring three. The official gave no further details, but it appears the boat could have been mistaken as a threat in Gulf waters not far from Iran's maritime boundaries. An Emirati rescue official confirmed the casualty toll. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the incident between the two allies. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, said it was investigating the Monday shooting. The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi had no immediate comment." So far so bad, but where it gets even worse is that over the weekend, Russia finally decided to make its own voice heard in the middle east, and after over a year of the west condemning Syrian "eradication" of its own insurgents and keeping Russia on the defensive, Russia has decided to shine a light on none other than America's favorite regional ally: Saudi Arabia, which as we reported recently, has once again taken to quelling religious protests in Qatif and other eastern cities. Apparently Russia has had enough of this one-sided reporting of regional "insurgencies." From Al Jazeera:

Saudi Arabia has condemned comments by Russia's human rights envoy on the situation in the kingdom as "hostile" and an unjustified interference in the kingdom's internal affairs, Saudi state media reported.

Russian Human Rights envoy Konstantin Dolgov expressed "great concern" about the situation in eastern Saudi Arabia following what he described as clashes between law enforcement and peaceful demonstrators in which two people were killed and more than 20 were wounded, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry website.

The Saudi interior ministry has said there were no clashes but that two people were killed by unknown assailants last Sunday in the east, where the country's minority Muslim Shia population is concentrated.

"The Kingdom learned with strong astonishment and surprise about the comment by the Russian Foreign Ministry's representative on human rights which represents a blatant and unjustified intervention... in the internal affairs of the kingdom," the Saudi news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry statement, attributed to an "official source", as saying on Saturday.

The agency said the government of Saudi Arabia condemned such comments as "hostile".

Dolgov had said that people in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia were protesting "against the existing, according to their opinion, impairment of the rights of the Shi'ite community on the part of the authorities of the Kingdom".

Saudi Arabia said that minor protests took place after the arrest of a cleric on charges of sedition, and after he and a group with him opened fire on police.

It said that two men who were killed had been shot by unknown assailants and an investigation into who killed them was underway.

Keep a close eye on this latest geopolitical development as it marks a major departure for Russia which so far has stayed out of Saudi Arabian dealings with its own insurgent population, a move which make no mistake, is nothing short of a shot across the US diplomatic bow.

US Ship Mistakenly Fires On Friendly Boat Off Dubai, As Russia Condemns Saudi Treatment Of Religious Protesters | ZeroHedge

A U.S. military supply ship fired at a small boat in the Persian Gulf on Monday after it came too close to the ship, two U.S. officials said. One person aboard the boat was apparently killed.

The USNS Rappahannock, a fuel resupply ship, fired on what is described by the officials as a “small white pleasure craft” 10 miles outside the Dubai port of Jebel Ali.

The U.S. ship verbally warned the boat and fired at least one warning shot before the decision was made to fire shots to disable the boat. Officials described the course of events as standard procedure when a small boat gets too close to a U.S. Navy ship.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/16/world/meast/persian-gulf-shoot...