Iran media plays down U.S. naval rescue of nationals

TEHRAN (AFP) -- Iranian media were largely silent Saturday on the U.S. navy's rescue of 13 Iranians held by pirates in the Arabian Sea, making little mention of the incident -- or that the U.S. ships included an aircraft carrier Tehran had warned out of the region.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported only that a U.S. warship "claimed" to have saved the Iranian fishermen from a weeks-long ordeal as captives of Somali pirates.

"So far Islamic Republic of Iran's armed forces staff has not confirmed" the incident, IRNA said.

The U.S. military said the rescue was carried out on Thursday by the USS Kidd, one of several warships escorting the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, after the captain of the Iranian fishing dhow asked for help.

On Tuesday, Iranian military chiefs had warned the Stennis, which is currently attached to the U.S. Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, to stay out of the Gulf. Otherwise it would face the "full force" of Iran's navy, spokesman Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi said.

A New York Times reporter and photographer, who were travelling on the

Stennis, went aboard the Iranian fishing vessel, Al Mulahi, and spoke with its crew, as well as with several of the Somali pirates arrested by the Americans.

"It is like you were sent by God," one of the Iranian fishermen, Fazel Ur Rehman, 28, was quoted as telling his U.S. rescuers.

The captain, Mahmed Younes, 28, told the New York Times the pirates had captured his vessel in late November and had since been using it as a mother ship for their operations around the region.