SBS frogmen fight Isis gas tanker plot to blow up UK port
SPECIAL FORCES frogmen are searching for terrorist mines attached to the vast tankers that ferry gas from the Middle East to Britain, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Members of the Special Boat Service (SBS) and specialists from the Royal Navy are conducting the covert searches amid growing fears that Al Qaeda or Islamic State terrorists might attach explosives to ships in the Middle East – and detonate them when they reach the UK.
Giant tankers carrying millions of tons of liquid natural gas are being searched in secret while in foreign docks in a effort to prevent a horrific explosion, environmental disaster and, possibly, a huge loss of life. A senior Naval source said there was even the possibility that terrorists could plant mines on ships once they have entered UK waters.
A source said: ‘The threat against gas tankers emerged a couple years ago and we have been training to counter it ever since. The concern is that tankers could be sailed into UK waters and destroyed either with mines or improvised explosive devices [IEDs].
‘It is entirely possible a major incident could result in fuel shortages in the UK and this would be disastrous economically.’
The search mission began two years ago after intelligence emerged that terrorists had either acquired limpet mines, which can be attached to a ship’s hull, or were planning to develop a similar device.
Navy divers involved in ‘underwater force protection operations’ – searching ships for mines – come from the SBS and from an elite team called Fleet Diving Unit 1.
Using specialist military diving equipment, the frogmen can swim to depths of more than 200ft and are trained to defuse limpet mines and IEDs in the dark. Divers search ships – some of which are more than 300 yards long – using James Bondstyle diver-propulsion vehicles to move underwater at speed.
Dozens of British ships have been searched in the past two years, although it is not known whether any mines have been found. Divers work in pairs, communicating with each other with special underwater radios and using sophisticated breathing equipment.
Some of the specialist dive teams are based on Naval ships and submarines but extra units can be deployed by small boats or by parachuting them into the sea.
Navy divers and the SBS also work together on counter-terrorist operations and are trained to recapture hijacked ships and to defuse bombs placed on oil rigs.
Although not part of the special forces, Navy divers have to undertake some of the most arduous training in the Armed Forces.
Intelligence officials believe that the main threat to gas tankers comes from limpet mines, which are small and relatively cheap. They can be attached to steel, fibre-glass or wooden hulls using magnets, suckers or silent-firing nail guns.
Each mine can blast a hole through a ship’s hull – and some are fitted with anti-handling devices, making the divers’ job even more hazardous.
As well as searching gas tankers, Royal Navy warships in ports in Egypt and Beirut – now regarded as high-threat for terrorist attacks – are also routinely searched.
Dozens of gas tankers enter British waters from around the world but those at risk of being targeted come mainly from Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar. The tankers unload at terminals on the Isle of Grain in Kent and at Milford Haven in Wales and the gas is fed to power stations around the UK.
A Navy spokesman said it did not comment on Special Forces or ongoing operations.