An Indian fisherman was killed and three people were wounded when a US navy ship fired at their boat off Dubai in the southern Gulf, a United Arab Emirates official said. "The firing has led to the death of one Indian national and serious injury of three Indian nationals," Tarek al-Hedan, an aide to the foreign minister for political affairs told the official WAM news agency on Monday. "The services concerned are now investigating this incident," he said. Lieutenant Greg Raelson, a spokesman for the US navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said that sailors aboard the USNS Rappahannock opened fire on the boat after it ignored warnings.
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Brave, brave sailors or...
ElGuapo 44 weeks 8 hours 15 min 51 sec ago
Cowards scared of fishermen?
The article does not mention the distance from the ship to the fishing boat when they opened fire with the 50 cal, but the story is that the fishing boat was 8KM (nearly 5 miles) away when contact was first attempted. The maximum effective range of the 50 cal machine gun they used to kill the fishermen is approximately 4.2 miles. The fisherman's boat was a relatively small craft with 3 outboard motors (not typically quiet), it was likely moving at a decent clip. I doubt the fishermen had any idea they were being "warned" or fired at until the rounds started ripping through their soft bodies.