MANAMA — Coalition naval forces in the Arabian Gulf that carried out over 2,000 boardings of suspicious vessels last year are tightening security to prevent terrorists from having maritime access to the region.
The presence of coalition forces, mainly American, has also led to a decline in high-seas piracy with the coalition launching an awareness campaign directed at maritime merchants to help them understand the coalition role in the region.
Commanding officer of the US Navy guided missile destroyer USS Mason, Cmdr. Eugene Black, whose battleship is part of a task force combating terrorism in the region, said that their mission was to deter, detect, and disturb international terrorism.
“We occasionally stop some vessels that we suspect and board them,” he said. Cmdr. Black added that protecting the maritime infrastructure and shipping routes was also part of their operations here.
Lt. Cmdr. Neil Brennan from the HSL-46 Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron, which is deployed out from Mayport, Florida, and stationed onboard the USS Mason, said that they had been flying missions to gather intelligence and report suspicious movements to their command.
“We carry out routine patrols and report suspicious movements to the command and based on that they decide which vessels to board,” he said. “There had been smuggling of weapons and drugs on cargo dhows so they are the ones we target the most.”
The USS Mason has two helicopters, which carry out search and rescue operations as a secondary mission.
They are operated by six pilots and three air crewmen who are certified rescue swimmers.
In recent weeks the USS Mason coordinated with the Bahraini authorities to help carry out a rescue by a Bahraini helicopter to evacuate sailors off a sinking dhow.
The coalition efforts come as an awareness campaign continues to be carried out among sailors in the region to help them understand their role and bring about closer cooperation to combat terrorism.
The US 5th Fleet Public Affairs Officer, Lt. William Speaks, said that food rations and necessities that coalition forces hand out to sailors on boarded vessels now carry information for sailors on how to access the coalition’s marine radio channel.
“The information is posted in Arabic, Persian and Urdu,” he said. The channel broadcasts messages about the coalition role and mission and how maritime sailors could cooperate with them to stop terrorism.
The US Navy had always offered fresh food and water to sailors, but the posting of information about the coalition mission has only been carried out recently.
The USS Mason, which has been joined by the Italian destroyer Grecale on Monday, is part of Task Force 152 that is carrying out anti-terrorism missions in the region. According to figures issued by the US Navy there had been over 1,300 boarding of vessels in the Northern Arabian Sea since 2001, with 166 of them taking place in 2004.
In the Horn of Africa region there had been over 200 boarding of vessels since 2001, over 120 of them carried out in 2004 alone.
The coalition also carries out what is known as “bridge to bridge” inquires with vessels to ask about their heading and cargo, with hundreds of such communications taking place each year.
