Monday, 21 June 2010

Civil Guard patrol boat ignored warnings as it came close to the heavily armed warship HMS Somerset and the fast patrol boat HMS Sabre.

Civil Guard patrol boat ignored warnings as it came close to the heavily armed warship HMS Somerset and the fast patrol boat HMS Sabre.
The two Royal Navy vessels were carrying out an anti-terror exercise in an area where ships are always on high alert for attacks.
Britain has made an official complaint to Spain following the latest in a series of confrontations between the two countries around Gibraltar.
The 52ft (16m) Rio Tormes headed towards the two ships on the evening of June 1. The patrol vessel's red, white, blue and yellow markings were difficult to spot because of the fading light, and they refused to identify themselves despite repeated requests from the British ships.
The Rio Tormes is usually deployed to stop drug smugglers and illegal immigrants from reaching Spain from north Africa.
Senior British military officials were said to be "furious" when they learned what happened, and said the Spanish ship risked being "blown out of the water" by its recklessness. A Navy source told the Gibraltar Chronicle: "Racing towards a well-armed warship is madness. It's irresponsible and incredibly risky."
But the crew of the HMS Sabre, a fast patrol boat based in Gibraltar, were able to confirm its identity.
A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "The issue here is safety. We have raised this directly with the Spanish government." HMS Somerset, a 463ft, type 23 frigate was in Gibraltar on its way to deployment in the Gulf.
The Navy ships were carrying out a terror exercise involving how to deal dangerous situations with unidentified small craft when the incident happened.
Spain refuses to recognise that the waters outside Gibralter's three-mile port perimeter are British and has repeatedly tried to reclaim them.
Britain was given Gibraltar and the waters around it in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, but Spain has said it will never renounce its claim to sovereignty.

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