Terror Watch

June 24, 2008

McCain adviser apologizes for September 11 comment

FRESNO, California (Reuters) - A top adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain apologized on Monday after he was quoted as saying a September 11-type attack before the November election would benefit McCain.

The campaign of Democrat Barack Obama condemned the remark by McCain political adviser Charlie Black, calling it a "complete disgrace."

"I deeply regret the comments, they were inappropriate," Black said in a statement after McCain said that if Black had made such a comment, "I strenuously disagree" with it.

"I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration," said Black, one of McCain's most trusted political advisers.

Fortune magazine said Black, in discussing how national security was McCain's strong suit, had said when asked about another terrorist attack on U.S. soil that "certainly it would be a big advantage to him."

Black's comment to Fortune was a distraction for McCain as he seeks to catch up to Obama in the polls, where Obama leads by about 6 percentage points.

"The fact that John McCain's top adviser says that a terrorist attack on American soil would be a 'big advantage' for their political campaign is a complete disgrace, and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to change," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who lost to President George W. Bush in the 2004 election based largely on who would make the country safer, said Black's comment smacked of "the worst of the Rove-Bush fear playbook," a reference to Bush's former political adviser, Karl Rove.

A McCain campaign official said Black did not remember making the particular comment to Fortune but did not dispute the characterization.

The official said Black was speaking in the context that any day on the campaign trail that the theme was national security, was a good day for McCain.

McCain, asked about the magazine article at a news conference, distanced himself from the comment.

"I cannot imagine why he would say it. It's not true," McCain said, adding he had worked hard since the September 11 attack to prevent another such attack. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Caren Bohan; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Steve Holland - Reuters | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

 

Iran says EU sanctions could hurt nuclear diplomacy

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday new sanctions imposed on it by the European Union over its nuclear plans could hurt diplomatic efforts to resolve the row.

The standoff between the West and the Islamic state has sparked fears of a military confrontation that would disrupt oil supplies. Last week a report said Israel had practiced for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear sites.

But a senior Iranian official denied on Tuesday the rumors of an Israeli attack on his country, which sent stocks lower and oil prices higher.

"No attack against Iran's nuclear facilities has taken place," the official said. In Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokesman said: "We are not aware of any such incident in Iran."

Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, has described Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence.

Western powers suspect Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, wants to make nuclear arms but Tehran denies this.

On Monday, the 27-nation EU agreed new punitive measures targeting businesses and individuals the West says are linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic program.

The latest sanctions include an asset freeze on Iran's largest state bank, Bank Melli, and visa bans on senior officials including Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar and Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini condemned the move by the EU, still an important economic partner for Tehran even if trade volumes have declined, as "illegal" and made clear it would not slow Iran's nuclear activities.

OIL WINDFALL

Hosseini said the sanctions would strengthen the determination of Iranians "to establish their obvious rights and will not help to create an appropriate atmosphere to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels".

He was referring to separate proposals put forward by Iran and by six world powers intended to defuse the dispute that has helped push up oil prices to record highs.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana handed Iran an offer on June 14 of economic and other benefits proposed by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France to try to convince it to halt uranium enrichment.

Iranian officials have repeatedly ruled out suspending enrichment, which can have both civilian and military uses.

Their refusal to do so has drawn three rounds of limited U.N. sanctions since 2006 and Western powers have warned of more such measures if Iran rejects the latest offer.

Iran has put forward its own package of proposals aimed at resolving the row, but diplomats say it ignores global concern about its enrichment program.

Analysts say Western companies are becoming more wary of investing in Iran even though its windfall crude export earnings, which its oil minister estimates at $6 billion per month, are helping it to cushion the sanctions impact.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, widely expected to stand for re-election in 2009, is also under increased political pressure at home for failing to rein in annual inflation of 25 percent.

The United States, which has also imposed sanctions on Iran beyond the U.N. resolutions, says it is focusing on diplomatic pressure to thwart Tehran's nuclear plans but has not ruled out military action as a last resort.

On Friday, The New York Times quoted U.S. officials as saying Israel had carried out a large military exercise, apparently a rehearsal for a potential bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Additional reporting by Jerusalem bureau; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl - Reuters | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

 

June 22, 2008

Iran presses on with nuclear enrichment "non-stop"

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran is pressing on with uranium enrichment "non-stop", its envoy to the U.N. nuclear agency was quoted as saying on Saturday, despite a world powers' offer of economic incentives to coax Tehran into halting such activities.

The Islamic Republic also appeared to dismiss any suggestion of limiting nuclear work it says is for generating electricity but which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.

Six major powers, including the United States, last week offered Iran help in developing a civilian nuclear program and other benefits in their latest attempt to resolve a long-running dispute that has helped pushed oil prices to record highs.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said Tehran was ready to start negotiations "based on a win-win principle", official media said. Saeed Jalili was also quoted as saying such talks represented a "golden opportunity" to strengthen peace.

But Iran "will not bow to any illogical demands that would deprive it of its rights to continue with its peaceful nuclear activities", he said.

The United States says it is focusing on diplomatic pressure to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions but has not ruled out military action as a last resort.

The New York Times on Friday quoted U.S. officials as saying Israel had carried out a large military exercise, apparently a rehearsal for a potential bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief, Mohamad ElBaradei, the same day warned a military strike on Iran would turn the Middle East into a fireball.

Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham, when asked about the report on Saturday, branded Israel a "dangerous regime" but made clear his view that it would not dare attack.

"Such insolence and audacity (against Iran's) interest and territorial integrity is an impossible act," Elham said.

Diplomats said on Friday the six powers had offered Iran preliminary talks on its nuclear program, on condition it limit enrichment to current levels for six weeks in exchange for a freeze on moves towards harsher sanctions.

They said European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana conveyed the proposal during talks in Tehran on June 14 in which he presented a revised batch of incentives for Iran to stop pursuing technology that could yield atomic weapons.

"FREEZE-FOR-FREEZE"

Asked whether such a "freeze-for-freeze" proposal would be acceptable to Iran, Elham told reporters:

"About suspension, it has been said that suspension of activities and suspension of enrichment is not a logical issue that would be acceptable and in any case the continuation of negotiations will not be based on enrichment suspension."

Iran has repeatedly rejected the sextet's precondition of a full suspension of enrichment-related activity before negotiations to implement the incentives.

Iran says it will review the offer by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany but that it will not stop work which can have both civilian and military uses.

Its refusal to do so has drawn three rounds of limited United Nations sanctions since 2006.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran continues with enrichment non-stop," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Tehran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Iran's state broadcaster in an interview.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, has steadily expanded enrichment capacity to 3,600 centrifuge machines.

Asked why Iran would need additional centrifuges, Jalili said: "We would need at least 50,000 centrifuges for a small sized power station."

Under the "freeze-for-freeze" proposal, Iran would not expand enrichment capacity by adding centrifuge machines for a six-week period, during which the powers would stop moves to sharpen the mild sanctions already in force, the diplomats said.

The interim period would enable "pre-negotiations" to agree parameters for formal negotiations to put the incentives into effect, once Iran has fully suspended enrichment, they said.

(Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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Zahra Hosseinian and Hashem Kalantari - Reuters | Sunday, June 22, 2008

 

June 18, 2008

Obama rebukes McCain camp on terrorism criticism

WASHINGTON (AP) - A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."

The debate between the rival camps echoed the 2004 presidential campaign in which President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other Republicans argued that Democratic nominee John Kerry was soft on terror, a claim that resonated with voters and helped propel Bush to re-election. Democrats complained that the GOP was using the politics of fear.

The Republican argument proved less effective in 2006 when then Bush adviser Karl Rove said the Democrats had a pre-Sept. 11 view of the world and Republicans had a post-Sept. 11 terror attacks perspective. In November of that year, Democrats captured enough congressional seats to seize control of the House and Senate.

On his campaign plane, Obama told reporters that Osama bin Laden is still at large in part because Bush's strategy toward fighting terror has not succeeded.

At issue were comments Obama made in an interview with ABC News Monday in which he spoke approvingly of the successful prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Obama was asked how he could be sure the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies are not crucial to protecting U.S. citizens.

Obama said the government can crack down on terrorists "within the constraints of our Constitution." He mentioned the indefinite detention of Guantanamo Bay detainees, contrasting their treatment with the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

"And, you know, let's take the example of Guantanamo," Obama said. "What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks - for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center - we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.

"And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, 'Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims. ...

"We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws," Obama said.

Obama agreed with the Supreme Court ruling last week that detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a constitutional right to challenge their indefinite imprisonment in U.S. civilian courts. McCain derided the ruling as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."

McCain aides criticized Obama for talking about using the criminal justice system to prosecute terrorists.

"Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation a September 10th mind-set ... He does not understand the nature of the enemies we face," McCain national security director Randy Scheunemann told reporters on a conference call.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, who is advising the McCain campaign, concurred, saying Obama has "an extremely dangerous and extremely naive approach toward terrorism ... and toward dealing with prisoners captured overseas who have been engaged in terrorist attacks against the United States."

The Obama campaign countered with its own conference call in which Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Richard Clarke, a counterterrorism official in Republican and Democratic administrations, argued the McCain campaign was emulating Rove.

"I'm a little disgusted by the attempts of some of my friends on the McCain campaign to use the same old, tired tactics ... to drive a wedge between Americans for partisan advantage and to frankly frighten Americans," Clarke said.

Kerry accused McCain of "defending a policy that is indefensible" by siding with Bush's policies, particularly with respect to the Iraq war.

Obama said Republicans could be counted on to do "what they've done every election cycle, which is to use terrorism as club to make the American people afraid to win elections." He said he didn't think it would work this time.

Republicans criticized Obama last year when he said the United States should act on intelligence about top terrorist targets in Pakistan even if President Pervez Musharraf refuses.

---

Beth Fouhy reported from New York.

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NEDRA PICKLER and BETH FOUHY - AP | Wednesday, June 18, 2008

 

June 16, 2008

Britain announces new sanctions against Iran

LONDON (AP) - Britain will freeze assets of Iran's largest bank in a further move to discourage the country from developing nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday.

Brown, speaking at a news conference with President Bush, said Britain will work to persuade Europe to follow suit.

The British leader said that assets of Iran's Bank Melli would be frozen. Last year, the United States accused the bank of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

"Action will start today in new phase of sanctions on oil and gas," Brown said. "We will take any necessary action so that Iran is aware of the choice it needs to make."

The U.S. and some of its allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies that, saying its atomic program is aimed at using nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed three sets of limited sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can both produce nuclear fuel and turn out the material needed for nuclear warheads.

The third round of U.N. sanctions passed in March introduced financial monitoring of Bank Melli and another bank with purported links to suspect Iranian nuclear activities, Bank Saderat.

Brown said his government wanted to do all it could to maintain a dialogue with Tehran.

"But we are also clear that if Iran continues to ignore (United Nations) resolutions, to ignore our offers of partnership, we have no choice but to intensify sanctions," the prime minister said.

"I will repeat that we will take any necessary action so that Iran is aware of the choice it has to make - to start to play its part as a full and respected member of the international community, or face further isolation."

Bush urged Tehran to accept a new package of incentives and said it should accept a Russian proposal to enrich uranium on Iran's behalf.

"When the Iranians say we have a sovereign right to have one, the answer is 'You bet you have a sovereign right, absolutely'," Bush said, referring to a civilian nuclear program.

"But you don't have the trust of those of us who have watched you carefully when it comes to enriching uranium, because you have declared that you want to destroy democracies in the neighborhood."

Brown said he will press European colleagues at a summit in Brussels, Belgium later this week to agree a tougher package of European Union sanctions against Iran, including the freezing of Bank Melli's assets.

The EU imposes its own set of measures against Iran, in addition to U.N.- backed sanctions, which include a total arms embargo and travel bans against a number of named individuals and organizations.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has previously called for the EU to target more companies - particularly in the banking sector - and other individuals who do not now face visa bans under current EU penalties.

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DAVID STRINGER - AP | Monday, June 16, 2008

 

May 16, 2008

Bin Laden marks Israel anniversary with combat vow

DUBAI (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape to mark Israel's 60th anniversary to continue to fight the Jewish state and its allies in the West.

The al Qaeda leader, who has placed growing emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said it was at the heart of the Muslim battle with the West and an inspiration to the 19 bombers who carried out the attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001.

"We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on Earth," he said in the message, posted on an Islamist website on Friday.

Bin Laden said Israel's anniversary celebrations were a reminder that it did not exist 60 years ago, and had been established on land seized from Palestinians by force.

"This is evidence that Palestine is our land, and the Israelis are invaders and occupiers who should be fought," he said in the tape, which was addressed to the Western public.

The Saudi-born militant also said that decades of peace initiatives had failed to establish a Palestinian state, and the West had proved time and again that it sided with Israel.

"The participation of Western leaders with the Jews in this celebration confirms that the West backs this Jewish occupation of our land, and that they stand in the Israeli corner against us," he said. "They proved this in practice by sending their forces to southern Lebanon."

He also said Western media had over the years painted Israelis as victims, and the Palestinians who had been displaced from their land as terrorists.

"CRAZY TERRORIST"

The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified but the voice sounded like bin Laden's.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel dismissed the tape as the ravings of a terrorist.

"We don't pay any attention to the threats of a crazy terrorist. The time has come for him to be caught and to be punished for all his crimes," Mekel said.

A U.S. official in Washington said the tape was being reviewed to establish if it was genuinely from bin Laden but the content came as no surprise.

"There's been a recent spate of terrorist messages in which Israel has been a central theme -- one that al Qaeda believes resonates in the Muslim world," the official said.

In a message on March 20, bin Laden urged Muslims to maintain the struggle against U.S. forces in Iraq as a path toward "liberating Palestine."

Al Qaeda has vowed attacks on Jews both inside and outside Israel and regularly expresses support for the Palestinians.

Al Qaeda is widely blamed for a suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and a simultaneous failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter jet near Mombasa airport in Kenya in 2002.

But despite calls by al Qaeda supporters for the militant network to establish a presence in Palestinian areas, U.S. intelligence officials see no evidence it has done so.

Analysts say it faces competition for turf, in particular in the Gaza Strip, from the well-established Hamas.

Bin Laden said the Palestinians in Gaza were being subjected to a "slow death" and blamed U.S.-allied Egypt for helping Israel to besiege the overcrowded Hamas-run area.

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Lin Noueihed - AP | Friday, May 16, 2008

 

May 13, 2008

More than 60 feared dead in India bomb blasts

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - More than 60 people were feared killed in bomb blasts in the western Indian city of Jaipur on Tuesday, state television said, citing Rajasthan state Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

Rohit Singh, a senior official in the state of Rajasthan where the bombs exploded, later told local television that between 50 and 60 people had been killed in six blasts "as per information available with me right now."

(Editing by Stephen Weeks)

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Reuters | Tuesday, May 13, 2008

 

April 27, 2008

Obama says will back Petraeus for new military job

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has called for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, said on Sunday he will vote to confirm the top commander there for a new job as head of the military's Central Command.

President George W. Bush has nominated Gen. David Petraeus, who led the buildup of troops in Iraq, to be in charge of operations across the Middle East and Central Asia.

If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus will still be in that job when the next president replaces Bush at the White House in January 2009. Obama hopes that person is him.

"Yes," Obama told "Fox News Sunday" when asked if, as a senator from Illinois, he would approve Petraeus. "I think Petraeus has done a good tactical job in Iraq."

Obama has said he would start pulling out more troops as soon as he became president.

"My hope is that Petraeus would reflect that wider view of our strategic interest," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

"I will listen to General Petraeus given the experience that he has accumulated over the last several years," Obama said. "It would be stupid of me to ignore what he has to say."

"It would be my job as commander in chief to set the mission, to make the strategic decisions in light of the problems that we're having in Afghanistan, in light of the problems that we are having in Pakistan, the fact that al Qaeda is strengthening," Obama said.

Republicans immediately jumped on his comments, saying Obama was avoiding the tough questions.

"Obama also said it would be 'stupid' to ignore commanders on the ground in Iraq, yet his withdrawal strategy does exactly that," Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant said in an e-mail. "If Obama isn't ready to answer tough questions, how can he be ready to be commander in chief?"

Obama also said he was a "big respecter" of Petraeus' predecessor Adm. William Fallon, who resigned after a magazine article depicted him as openly criticizing Bush administration policy over Iran.

"It was unfortunate that the administration wasn't listening more to the observations of Fallon, that we have to think about more than just Iraq, that we've got issues with Iran and Pakistan and Afghanistan, and our singular focus on Iraq I think has distracted us," Obama said.

(Writing by David Wiessler; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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Reuters | Sunday, April 27, 2008

 

Karzai Escapes Assassination Bid

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unhurt on Sunday from an assassination attempt by Taliban fighters who fired guns and rockets at an official celebration near the presidential palace in Kabul.

Karzai, government ministers, former warlords, diplomats and the military top brass ducked for cover after gunfire sounded at the event to mark the 16th anniversary of the fall of the Afghan communist government to the mujahideen.

Karzai later addressed the nation on state television.

"Today, the enemies of Afghanistan, the enemies of Afghanistan's security and progress tried to disrupt the ceremony and cause disorder and terror," he said.

"Afghanistan's military forces surrounded them quickly and arrested some of the suspects."

Three people were killed -- a parliamentarian, the head of a minority group and a 10-year-old child -- and 10 were wounded, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said three of its fighters were killed.

British ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles was standing on the front row of the dais alongside the U.S. envoy to Kabul.

"It was coming to the end of the 21-gun salute. I saw an explosion and a puff of dust to the left of the parade and then heard the crackle of small-arms fire from all directions," he told Reuters.

"My bodyguard frog-marched me away."

All cabinet members and foreign diplomats at the parade along with General Dan McNeill, U.S. commander of international forces in Afghanistan, were safe and well, spokesmen said.

TALIBAN ATTACKERS KILLED

NATO condemned the attack and said it would make no difference to the alliance's involvement in Afghanistan.

"NATO will continue to support the Afghan Government and people in defending their security and their democracy," Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.

The Taliban fire appeared to come from a building a few hundred meters (yards) from the site, a road which is blocked off for official parades, close to the presidential palace.

"Three of our attackers have been killed and three managed to escape. Small arms and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) were used in the attack," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters from an undisclosed location.

The attack disproved Afghan government and NATO assertions that the Taliban insurgency has been weakened, he said.

"Afghan and NATO authorities this year repeatedly said the Taliban are on the verge of annihilation ... Now it is has been proved to them the Taliban not only have the ability to operate in the provinces, but even in Kabul," said Mujahid.

"Karzai and his cabinet can't be safe from Taliban attacks."

Immediately after the attack, bandsmen in full dress uniform and ordinary soldiers scrambled to get out of the line of fire. Other soldiers and Karzai's bodyguards, dressed in black, took up firing positions on roads near the parade ground.

Karzai has survived several assassination attempts since he came to power after U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for failing to hand over al Qaeda leaders behind the September 11 attacks on the United States.

But Taliban insurgents regrouped and relaunched their insurgency two years ago and now fight daily battles with Afghan and foreign troops, mainly in the south and east, and have launched scores of suicide attacks throughout the country.

U.S.-led forces killed several militants on Saturday in a raid northeast of Kabul targeting a man involved in bomb attacks who was planning to disrupt ceremonies on Sunday. Several civilians were wounded in the ensuing battle in which artillery and air strikes were called in, the U.S. military said.

Karzai has repeatedly offered to hold peace talks with the Taliban, but the hardline Islamist militants have said they will fight on till they topple him and drive out the more than 50,000 foreign troops based in Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin, Jon Hemming and Jonathon Burch; Editing by Richard Meares)
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Reuters | Sunday, April 27, 2008

 

April 26, 2008

Ship hired by U.S. military fires warning shots in Gulf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A cargo ship hired by the U.S. military fired warning shots at approaching boats in the Gulf, the U.S. Navy said on Friday, underscoring tension in the region as the Pentagon sharpened its warnings to Iran.

According to American defense officials, the Westward Venture cargo ship chartered by the U.S. Defense Department was traveling in international waters when two unidentified small boats approached on Thursday.

After the boats failed to respond to radio queries and a warning flare, the cargo ship's security team fired "a few bursts" of machine gun and rifle warning shots, according to Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet.

"The small boats left the area a short time later," she said by telephone. "They were able to avoid a serious incident by following the procedures that we use."

The news helped push oil prices up more than $3 to $119.50 a barrel -- within striking distance of the record $119.90 hit earlier this week -- as traders worried escalating tensions in the region could eventually disrupt crude shipments.

U.S. defense officials, speaking only on condition of anonymity, first said they suspected the boats were Iranian.

But a Fifth Fleet spokeswoman quickly backed away from that charge.

"We cannot speculate on who they are. We just don't know. We have no proof of who they were," said Lt. Stephanie Murdoch, another spokeswoman for the Fifth Fleet.

In Tehran, an Iranian navy source denied that any confrontation had occurred with a U.S. ship in the Gulf. But the source, quoted by a journalist for Iran's state-owned Arabic Al-Alam TV channel, said any shooting that may have occurred could have targeted a non-Iranian vessel.

SIMMERING TENSION

Relations between Washington and Tehran are tense over Iran's nuclear program and who is to blame for ongoing violence in Iraq. Hostile rhetoric and close encounters in the Gulf have fueled speculation that the United States may be planning some sort of military action against Tehran.

U.S. charges of Iranian involvement in threats against its ships have also contributed to the tension.

In January, for example, the United States said five small Iranian speed boats aggressively approached three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical crude oil shipping route. During the confrontation, a radio message was received warning the U.S. ships they could explode within minutes.

But Iran said its boats were simply trying to identify the U.S. vessels and maritime experts said the threatening message may have come not from the Iranian boats but from a radio heckler known as "the Filipino monkey."

In March, another U.S. military-chartered ship preparing to cross the Suez Canal fired warning shots at a small boat, killing an Egyptian on board.

The latest incident came as America's top military officer charged Iran with increasing support for Iraqi militias and warned that the United States had military options to force Tehran to stop.

"When I say I don't want to take any military options off the table, that certainly more than implies that we have military options," said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. "That kind of planning activity has been going on for a long time. I think it will go on for some time into the future," he told reporters

While U.S. officials repeatedly deny plans to strike Iran, they have not closed the door completely on military action.

"Another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need and, in fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this week.

"But the military option must be kept on the table given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat -- either directly or through proliferation."

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Washington and Mohammed Abbas in Manama, Editing by Chris Wilson)

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Kristin Roberts - Reuters | Saturday, April 26, 2008