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CAIRO, Egypt-The top U.S. military commander in the Mideast said Friday that Iran runs the risk of triggering an unintended conflict if its boats continue to harass U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf. Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of U.S. Central Command, said a threatening radio call heard during an encounter Sunday between U.S. Navy ships and Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz was likely connected to Iran's provocative actions. He said the exact origin of the message was still unknown."This kind of behavior, if it happens in the future, is the kind of event that could precipitate a mistake," Fallon told The Associated Press. "If the boats come closer, at what point does the captain think it is a direct threat to the ship and has to do something to stop it?"Iran has tried to downplay the encounter as a normal occurrence, but U.S. officials have said that five Revolutionary Guards boats charged three U.S. Navy ships in a threatening manner, dropping boxes in the water in an apparent attempt to intimidate the Americans.The confrontation occurred just days before President Bush was scheduled to begin his first major Mideast trip.The Pentagon has released a video showing small Iranian boats swarming around U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz. In the recording, a man threatens in accented English, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes."Fallon said Friday that the U.S. was still trying to determine the source of the threatening radio call but remained convinced that it was related to the actions of the Iranian boats."The voice is very strange. I don't know whether it came from the boats or one of the shore stations," he said in a telephone interview from Central Command headquarters in Florida. "But the timing of it is pretty suspicious. In my mind it is related to the maneuvers.""It certainly doesn't sound like a third party that just happened to say something threatening at that moment," he added.The radio call was heard over an open frequency often used by mariners to identify themselves and avoid accidents.Iran has denied that its boats threatened the U.S. vessels and accused Washington of fabricating the video. Iran has released its own video, which appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least 100 yards from the American warships.The footage does not shown any Iranian boats approaching the U.S. vessels or any provocation, and does not include the threatening radio call. U.S. officials have said the controversial parts were edited out of the Iranian video.U.S. Navy and Iranian officials have said in the past that vessels from the two rival nations frequently come into contact in the waters of the narrow, heavily trafficked Gulf. They often communicate by radio to avoid incidents.But the latest encounter was the first time U.S. officials have spoken of such a direct threat from Iranian boats.As in the days of Noah....
