Dangerous confrontations between Iran and the U.S. Navy are becoming even more frequent than previously estimated, Fox News has learned.
(FOX)- According to new data shared Monday with Fox News by a U.S. defense official, the number of provocative interactions between Iranian vessels and the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf nearly doubled in the first half of 2016 compared with the same time period a year ago.
“In the first half of 2016, we have seen nearly twice as many unprofessional and/or unsafe interactions when compared to the first half last year. That’s a disturbing rise and it has continued into the second half of the year,” said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
In the first half of 2016, there were 19 dangerous interactions with the Iranians, which the U.S. Navy characterized as “unsafe and unprofessional.” In the first half of 2015, that number was 10, according to the official. The Iranian vessels acted as the aggressors every time, according to the U.S. Navy.
The account follows a Fox News report on Friday citing estimates that such confrontations are up more than 50 percent this year.
The defense official, though, said Monday the U.S. Navy had gone through its numbers over the weekend and reclassified some of them. (U.S. Central Command had issued a statement in July saying there were 26 dangerous interactions in the first half of 2016.)
The new numbers show an even sharper rise in the first half of the year, though the number itself is lower than Central Command first estimated.
Further, since July, there have been 11 dangerous confrontations, according to the data, in a sign of increasing Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. There were four such encounters with Iran last week alone, including one that required warning shots from a U.S. Navy ship.