Iran Ajr

On 21 September 1987, U.S. forces involved in Operation Prime Chance – the covert part of Operation Earnest Will, the mission to protect U.S.-flagged petroleum-carrying ships in the Persian Gulf – tracked Iran Ajr and dispatched United States Army helicopters from the United States Navy guided-missile frigate USS Jarrett (FFG-33) to shadow her. When the aviators reported that people aboard Iran Ajr were laying mines, the U.S. commander in the Persian Gulf ordered the pilots to "stop the mining." The helicopters fired on the ship, killing some of the crewmen and chasing others into the water. A team of United States Navy SEAL commandos later boarded the ship, confirmed the presence of mines, and detained the surviving Iranians. On 26 September, EOD MU5 Detachment 5 scuttled the ship in international waters.

When the U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) struck a mine in the Persian Gulf in April 1988, U.S. Navy explosive ordnance specialists matched the serial numbers of nearby unexploded mines to the ones aboard Iran Ajr. This evidence of Iranian involvement in the mining of Samuel B. Roberts led to the biggest surface-warfare naval battle since World War II, the retribution campaign of 18 April 1988 called Operation Praying Mantis.[3]

The captured colors of Iran Ajr are in the U.S. Navy Museum.

• Wise, Harold Lee (2007). Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf 1987-88. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-970-5.
• Crist, David (2012). The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict With Iran. New York: The Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1-59420-341-1.

• The attack on the Iran Ajr
• Another narration of the attack
• Photos of the captured Iran Ajr and its detainees aboard U.S. Navy warships