Operational Environment
HMS Cornwall is a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate, lead ship of the Cornwall class, which then constituted part of the British contribution to Combined Task Force 158. CTF158 controls Maritime Security Operations in the Northern Persian Gulf and includes Royal Navy, United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, Royal Australian Navy and Iraqi Navy forces. The Task Force is currently commanded by Commodore Nick Lambert, embarked in HMS Cornwall with a staff from Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces.
In a joint Five News and Sky News interview, recorded on 13 March but not broadcast until after the servicemen and women had been released, Captain Chris Air acknowledged that he was operating close to the buffer zone between Iranian and Iraqi waters, saying: "It's good to gather intelligence on the Iranians" and that one purpose of patrols in the area was to gather intelligence on "any sort of Iranian activity".
On 23 March 2007 the two boats from HMS Cornwall with the boarding team, 14 men and one woman, conducted an unopposed boarding and compliance inspection of a merchant vessel suspected of smuggling automobiles. Following the inspection and after disembarking from the merchantman the team was detained by Iranian forces in six boats at around 10:30 Iraqi time (07:30 GMT), and escorted to an Iranian naval facility in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway.
Journalists on HMS Cornwall reported that the British forces had chased and boarded a barge (or dhow) that had offloaded vehicles from the merchant ship. The merchant ship and barges, which had been observed the previous day when a barge was boarded, were suspected of smuggling.
According to Britain, HMS Cornwall could not get closer to the merchant vessel because of shallow water. A Lynx helicopter monitoring the boarding had resumed its reconnaissance of the area, and by the time Cornwall realised what was happening the British team was already being escorted to shore by the Iranian border patrol.
Media reporting indicates that warnings of an increased risk of action by Iran, in response to the detention of Iranian officials in Iraq, had been communicated to the UK by the US Central Intelligence Agency but had not resulted in an increase in the area threat levels.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Iranian Seizure Of Royal Navy Personnel
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