'Threatening message during US-Iran naval standoff could have been hoax'
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A threatening radio message at the end of a video showing Iranian patrol boats swarming near US warships may have come from a prankster rather than from the Iranian vessels, the Navy Times newspaper has reported.
A video and audio of the January 6 incident in the Strait of Hormuz featured a man in accented English saying "I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes."
Navy officials say they are still trying to determine the source of the threatening radio transmission but remained convinced that it was related to provocative actions of the Iranian boats.
However, the Navy Times, a weekly newspaper published by the Gannett company, quoted several veteran sailors as speculating the transmission could have come from a heckler widely known among sailors in the region as "the Filipino Monkey."