US Warship Collides with Tanker
Navy destroyer 'USS Porter' and a Japanese-owned tanker collide near the Strait of Hormuz. The impact tore open the destroyer’s starboard side but left both crews unharmed, 5th Fleet said in a news release. The circumstances of the collision — whether the collision was in the channel, the relative speeds at impact, or which ship had right of way — remain unclear. Porter had just completed an inbound transit through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf, said 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Greg Raelson.
U.S. Warship Saves Gulf of Oman Boat-blaze Victims
The U.S. Navy reports the rescue of 10 mariners from a blazing wooden Iran-flagged boat. The recent rescue by the destroyer USS James E. Williams is at least the seventh involving Iranian sailors in nearly two years and is a reminder of U.S. efforts to demonstrate the humanitarian value of its naval presence in the Gulf, a strategic waterway the Iranian government has threatened to close in retaliation for international sanctions over its nuclear program. The sailors were rescued from a traditional wooden boat flying an Iranian flag and transported aboard the U.S. vessel, where they received medical treatment and are awaiting transport to aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, which is coordinating repatriation efforts, said Lt. Greg Raelson, spokesman for the Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.