KUWAIT CITY, May 21 (UPI) -- The British Royal Navy is leading an operation to locate and remove the threat of water mines in the Persian Gulf.

Cmdr. David Hunkin, British Royal Navy 2nd Mine Counter-measures Squadron, is heading up an operation in the Persian Gulf, along with the U.S. Navy and the Iraqi and Kuwaiti navies, to clear areas of mines from previous conflicts.

Officials say the operation is an effort to remove the threat of mines in the water to bolster commercial traffic through the Khawr Abd Allah waterway to ports in Iraq and Kuwait, the British Ministry of Defense reported.

Mine clearance diving teams along with very shallow water unmanned underwater vehicles are scanning the waterways while the Iraqi Department for Border Enforcement works to provide security ashore. Officials say areas where there are suspected anti-invasion minefields laid by Saddam Hussein's regime in 1991 and 2003 are being searched along with other areas that have been previously inaccessible.

"Our work is directly supporting the future success of both Iraq and Kuwait by improving access to their ports and sea-lanes, and we have received many messages of support from both countries," Hunkin said in a statement.

"Each nation has brought their own expertise and equipment, and we have melded them together into an effective coalition mine countermeasures task group."