President Donald Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he had instructed the U.S. Navy to fire on Iranian boats harassing U.S. ships, a week after a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf. “I have instructed the U.S. Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump said. Earlier, the U.S. military said that 11 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC) boats had repeatedly approached U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf in a dangerous and harassing manner.

According to the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, they approached the six U.S. ships at high speed in some cases within about nine metres.