IRGC forced Americans to withdraw: Cmdr. praises elite force over operation against US act of piracy

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)'s chief commander officially thanks the force's Navy for successfully preventing an act of piracy by the United States that targeted an Iranian oil shipment last month.

The IRGC Navy's successful operation during the October incident robbed the Americans of the ability to engage in any "rapid reaction" and "forced them to withdraw and leave the scene," Major General Hossein Salami said during a ceremony to mark the IRGC Navy's successful operation against American naval forces.

"Through your command and awareness, you showed the enemy's grandeur to be empty," Salami told the Wednesday event at the IRGC's main headquarters in Tehran.

Salami said the IRGC forces created “a great epic" and “humiliated the enemy" through calm and confident action and "proved to be ready for whatever reaction."

"Although Muslims have always been less in number in the face of the [global] arrogance, they, armed by the weapons of struggle and martyrdom, have managed to reduce many powers to submission and subjugate them," the commander noted.

He considered the difference between the volume and appearance of the enemy's accoutrements and that of the Islamic Republic to only be "geometric" in nature. "It is the elements of faith and willpower that are [rather] decisive in these cases of imbalance," he added.

IRGC had predicted American interference

Salami said the IRGC had equipped itself with the required "scenario and [level of] preparedness" because it had already predicted facing interfering action on the part of the Americans.

The incident took place on October 25, but news and footage of which were released last Wednesday.

IRGC releases footage of confronting US piracy targeting Iranian oil in Sea of Oman

The IRGC releases detailed footage of its confrontation late last month against an American act of piracy targeting an Iranian fuel shipment.

During the incident, American forces confiscated a tanker that was carrying a cargo of Iranian oil in the strategic Sea of Oman, transferring its consignment of crude to another vessel. The IRGC then staged a maritime operation against the second vessel, landing a helicopter on its deck and navigating the ship towards Iranian waters.

Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the IRGC Navy, who was addressing the ceremony alongside General Salami also provided more details about the incident.

He said the IRGC Navy launched the operation after conducting lengthy intelligence and surveillance operations centering on the American act of piracy, adding that the IRGC Navy launched into action when the vessel containing the stolen oil was around 40 miles (some 65 kilometers) from the southern Iranian island of Jask.

During the Navy's heliborne operation against the second tanker, American warships, helicopters, and drones approached the site of the operation and "assumed battle formation" around the vessel, Tangsiri said.

After failing to interrupt the operation with two warships, the American forces called in three more military vessels, he said.

"By God's grace and thanks to the percipience, steadfastness, strength, and bravery of the sons of nation," their second attempt fell through too, and the American forces were "forced to admit defeat, retreat, and leave the scene," the IRGC Navy commander said.

Rebutting the American lie

General Salami, meanwhile, said the American side would have surely circulated footage of the confrontation if it had considered it to be a successful one in the least bit.

Tangsiri also refuted Washington's claim that the American side had only acted as the bystander in the incident, asking how come the American warships had come within 30 meters of the Iranian forces during the episode.

"If they were supposed to only surveil [the incident], they could have done it from farther distances or even using aircraft and drones."

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