WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- The British Navy frigate HMS Cornwall could not protect the 15 sailors and marines taken captive by Iran because of shallow water.
One of those captured and since released, said shallow water prevented the ship from getting close to them.
The U.S. military is examining procedures in their Persian Gulf maritime security operations to better protect naval boarding parties searching for smugglers and terrorists. The inherent danger of the operation was highlighted by Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines. Released Thursday, they were held for 13 days.
"HMS Cornwall is there to guard the vital oil platforms and command the coalition forces. She is also the platform by where the boarding teams can launch from and patrol out. Not only should she not have been closer to us but she physically could not have been. The water in the area where we were captured was too shallow," said Lt. Felix Carman of the Royal Navy.
For reasons not yet disclosed, a British navy helicopter that had been patrolling the skies over the sailors returned to the Cornwall when the sailors boarded a vessel to search it. After the sailors and Marines completed their search, they saw the two Iranian speedboats rapidly approaching their position so they returned to their boats.
The Iranian boats blocked in the sailors and marines, rammed their boats and trained heavy machine guns and other weapons on them as six more Iranian boats closed in.
Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air told CNN Friday his rules of engagement would have allowed his crew to fire on the Iranians but he decided not to because they were outmanned and outgunned.
"It was at this point that we realized that had we resisted, there would have been a major fight, one which we could not have won and with consequences that would have major strategic impacts. We made a conscious decision not to engage the Iranians and do as they asked," Air said at a Friday's news conference in Britain.
There are three coalition task forces enforcing maritime security in the Persian Gulf under a United Nations mandate.
