Allied
units have all but shut off the flow of illegal Iraqi oil in the
Persian Gulf, playing a game of cat and mouse with small boats
that had proven effective tools for smugglers and terrorists alike.
As they prepare for a potential confrontation with Saddam Hussein,
the coalition units have ratcheted up the pressure.
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Sailors
from HMAS Melbourne search a vessel intercepted after
sailing from Iraq, during anti-smuggling operations. Photo
by Corporal Wade Laube.
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They
are boarding twice as many boats as last year, and have stationed
an Australian warship inside Iraq’s territorial waters, all
in an effort to tighten enforcement of United Nations sanctions.
“What was a blockade that was probably only 30 to 40 percent
effective previously is now in the 80 to 90 percent range of effectiveness,”
said CAPT Peter Sinclair, the Australian officer who commands
the allied flotilla charged with enforcing the embargo in the
gulf.
In September, 318 ships were boarded, about double the number
boarded during a similar period last year. Of those, 64 were turned
back or detained.
For now, the allied embargo is also being helped by the Iranians;
who once turned a blind eye to smugglers, who at night often use
routes that hug Iran’s coastline.
The result has been that more boats carrying suspected smugglers
are being channelled toward allied patrols.
The sweltering waters of the Persian Gulf constitute one of the
most strategically important regions in the world. The gulf is
a major transit point for much of the world’s oil, a former
battleground between Iran and Iraq.
These days it is also filled with a new potential peril: attacks
by terrorists in small motor launches or wooden boats. It is the
kind of threat to which even the largest war ships are vulnerable,
even with their sophisticated technology.
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SMNCIS
Mel straps on her 9mm sidearm preparing for HMAS Melbourne
boarding operations. On a roster, she is on call to pull
on a bullet proof vest, helmet, gun and other kit, scramble
down a ladder into a rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB)
and speed away to intercept a dhow or oil tanker. Should
the craft be carrying illegal cargo it is turned around
and sent back. Once the vessel is seen to be departing the
boarding party return to their RHIB for another inspection
or return to their ship.
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Their
main defence against terrorist attacks at sea are sentries who
peer at the azure waters with binoculars and machine guns and
small arms.
“As the (USS) Cole showed us, ships can be vulnerable to
that kind of suicide attack,” CAPT William E. Dewes, the
commander of the USS Shiloh, said, referring to the American destroyer
attacked by terrorists in Yemen in October 2000. “We have
improvised and got ourselves a pretty good system. We are using
a lot of small arms that other services have.”
The threat of terrorist attacks from small craft is an added twist
in the competition between smugglers determined to circumvent
United Nations sanctions and a coalition determined to keep pressure
on President Hussein.
Under a program overseen by the United Nations, Iraq is allowed
to sell a limited amount of oil and use the proceeds to buy food
and medicine. But Iraq has also sought to smuggle additional amounts
of oil and other commodities, like dates, by sea and land.
To the consternation of the coalition, which fears that oil revenue
can be used by Iraq to develop nuclear, chemical or biological
arms, Iraq continues to send oil illegally by pipeline to Syria
and by truck to Turkey.
But the combination of Australian bravado, advanced military technology
and indirect Iranian cooperation has enabled the allies to virtually
close the tap on oil smuggled through The Gulf.
- By
MICHAEL R. GORDON
The New York Times web page
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The
Maritime Commander RADM Raydon Gates addresses the ship’s
company of HMAS Melbourne while on patrol in the Gulf. MCAUST
also helped celebrate the ship’s 200th boarding operation
with a cake.
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XO
Arunta keeps a close eye on operations in the Gulf.
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