Iran holdS war gameS aS U.S. enterS gUlf
Police have arrested a man and a woman after rogue drone operators crippled London’s Gatwick Airport for three days by repeatedly flying onto the airfield, sparking a major security response.
Britain’s second-largest airport was forced to close its runway in the run up to Christmas after drones started appearing on the site south of London in the most disruptive incursion from unmanned aerial vehicles at any major airport.
Police said they had made two arrests late on Friday as part of its ongoing investigation into the criminal use of drones. No group has claimed responsibility for the disruption, which affected at least 120,000 people on Wednesday and Thursday.
The airport, which shut its runway for spells on Wednesday and Friday and for all of Thursday, said it aimed to run a full schedule on Saturday.
However, it warned that passengers should expect delays and cancellations as it continues to recover from the biggest disruption since an Icelandic volcanic ash cloud in 2010.
“We continue to urge the public, passengers and the wider community around Gatwick to be vigilant,” police said.
“Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics,” they added in a statement. The pre-Christmas travel disruption began late on Wednesday when Gatwick was forced to cancel all flights after spotting small drones near the airfield. Every time the airport operators sought to reopen the runway on Thursday, the drones returned. Authorities finally regained control over the airfield after the army deployed unidentified military technology to guard the area, reassuring the airport that it was safe enough to fly. DUBAI: Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards launched war games in the Gulf on Saturday, state television reported, after a US aircraft carrier entered the waterway amid rising tension with Washington over reimposed US sanctions.
Television showed amphibious forces landing on Iran’s Gulf island of Qeshm during the exercises, in which naval vessels, helicopters, drones, rocket launchers and commando units also took part.
“Hopefully, with these exercises, our enemies will realise more than ever how devastating our response would be to any move by them,” said Guards chief Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari. Qeshm, the largest island in the Gulf, is located near the Strait of Hormuz through which a third of the world’s seaborne oil passes. The US aircraft carrier John C. Stennis entered the Gulf on Friday and was shadowed by Revolutionary Guards speedboats. Reuters witnesses also saw an Iranian drone flying nearby. Guards speedboats fired rockets but a US Navy spokeswoman said they were pointed away from US vessels.
“We believe it was part of their naval exercise,” Lieutenant Chloe Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet, said. Iranian officials have made apparent threats to disrupt other countries’ oil shipments through the Gulf if Washington presses ahead with efforts to halt Iranian oil exports as part of U.S sanctions against Tehran. “We certainly strive to support our Gulf allies and let them know that we are going to continue to be committed to this area and to (ensure) equal access to international waters,” said Captain Randy Peck, commander of the carrier Stennis.