Three speed boats of unidentified origin approached a US patrol boat as it transited the Gulf but stopped after a warning flare was fired, a US Navy spokesman said.

The USS Typhoon, a Coast Guard patrol boat, was heading from the central to the northern Gulf when it was approached by the high-speed boats, said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet.

"Typhoon issued the standard query to the incoming small boards via bridge-to-bridge," he said by telephone from Bahrain. "Upon receiving no response, Typhoon activated a flare. Small boats stopped and Typhoon continued on its way."

Christensen said the small boats were of "unidentified origin."

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Navy operate speed boats in the northern Gulf, and have played cat-and-mouse games in the past with US warships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

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