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SAN DIEGO – Defense secretary Robert Gates urged Iran to disavow provocative military acts Monday following last weekend's tense confrontation between U.S. warships and vessels of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

Gates, visiting Navy and Marine bases in the San Diego area, spoke briefly to reporters about last Sunday's incident, which he described as troubling.

“The risk of an incident or an incident escalating is real,” he said, describing the Tehran regime as very unpredictable. “I can't imagine what was on their minds.”

Five Revolutionary Guard speedboats repeatedly charged toward a Navy cruiser, destroyer and frigate in the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, dropping boxes in front of the U.S. ships and reportedly transmitting a radio message in which they threatened to blow up the Americans.

The three Navy ships were about to open fire when the five Iranian speedboats veered off at the last moment and raced away.

The Revolutionary Guards are a parallel military force within Iran, formed after the Islamic revolution there in 1979. They have their own ground, naval and air units, and are suspected by Washington of providing active support to terrorist groups in the Middle East.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry later characterized the incident as a case of mistaken identity, saying the speedboat crews turned away once they recognized the warships as American.

“It would be nice to see the Iranian government disavow this action and say it won't happen again,” the secretary said.

It was a jolting intrusion into an otherwise relaxed and pleasant day for Gates, who began with a visit to the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, where he pinned Bronze Stars on 10 members of an explosive disposal unit and a half-dozen Navy SEAL commandos who had fought in Iraq. He also spoke briefly to a class of sailors training to become SEALs.

He said the explosives detail cleared more than 90 improvised bombs while in Iraq. He praised the Iraq SEAL veterans for their “secret reconnaissance and direct-action missions against some of the world's most ruthless and dangerous killers.”

Gates then went to Naval Base San Diego, where he lunched with 25 members of the crew of the New Orleans, an amphibious transport dock ship of the LPD-17 San Antonio class.

“Each of them asked me a question,” Gates said, “and a couple of them gave me advice.”

The lunch was off-limits to reporters.

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