Iranian Navy saves U.S. cargo ship from pirates

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Iranian state media said Thursday that a U.S. cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman was rescued yesterday by the Iranian Navy after pirates climbed aboard.

The Fars News Agency said that the Iranian Navy was responding to a distress signal, and veered directly toward the U.S. cargo ship Maersk Texas, sending the pirates running. The ship’s owner, Virginia-based Maersk Line Ltd., confirmed the report to Bloomberg News.

U.S. ships have, in recent months, done the same courtesy for Iranian vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for about one-fifth of the world’s oil, where tensions between Iranian and U.S. forces have been high.

“We were aware of the incident yesterday,” a State Department official told CNN. “The situation was successfully deescalated by the ship’s crew and the Iranian crew.”

This video is from CNN, published Thursday, May 24, 2012.

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