REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Saturday, June 23, 2007

A NO-nonsense response enabled Australian sailors to escape a tense four-hour standoff with Iranian gunboats in the Persian Gulf, defence officials have revealed. The incident had similarities with the capture of British sailors in the Gulf earlier that year by Iranian forces.

In the previously undisclosed encounter, 14 Royal Australian Navy sailors were evacuated by helicopter after being surrounded by five Iranian gunboats in December, 2004.

The sailors from the frigate HMAS Adelaide had boarded a commercial vessel from inflatable boats near the IraqIran maritime border for a routine inspection of a grounded cargo ship.

An Iranian gunboat approached and its armed personnel made ‘very overt’ gestures, said Commodore Steve Gilmore, who once commanded coalition forces in the Gulf. The Australian commander immediately ordered his men to return to the small cargo ship, MV Shams.

"He got his boarding party back on to the ship and established a very credible and appropriate defensive position," Commodore Gilmore said in Canberra.

Another four Iranian military boats carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers arrived to reinforce their compatriots over the next 45 minutes, he said.

The BBC reporter who broke the story, Frank Gardner, citing various military sources, said the Australians had pointed their guns at the Iranians and used ‘colourful language’ to defuse the incident.

It was made very clear the Australians would not surrender or even yield to the Iranians.