Trump tweets order to U.S. Navy to ‘shoot down’ Iranian gunboats

U.S.President Donald Trump has tweeted an order to the U.S. Navy to destroy any armed Iranian boats that harass American ships.

Trump announced his new instructions to the Navy on 22 April.

He tweeted:

I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2020

The order came a week after 11 boats from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy swarmed U.S. military vessels in international waters in the Persian Gulf.

They got dangerously close at times, earlier reports indicated.

Trump’s order also follows Iran’s announcement that it had successfully placed its first military satellite into orbit.

The satellite was launched using a Qassed space launch rocket.

The United States and others accuse Iran of using its nascent space program as a cover for research and development into long-range ballistic missiles.