Minehunter returns from Libya action 04.07.11
17The Royal Navy minehunter HMS Brocklesby has returned to its home base at Portsmouth, after spending six months clearing mines off the coast of Libya. The vessel was initially deployed as part of a NATO mine countermeasures group before it was deployed to Libya. At the end of April, Brocklesby found and destroyed a buoyant mine laid in the port of Misrata by pro-Gaddafi forces in a bid to stop humanitarian aid from reaching the port. The efforts meant that the MV Red Star could enter the port and evacuated more than 700 civilians injured during the fighting. A navy spokesman said that Brocklesby's actions were the first time that a Royal Navy minehunter had been involved in live mine clearance operations within range of hostile artillery and rockets since the campaign off the Al Faw Peninsula in 2003 during the second Gulf War. He added that it also saw the first operational use of the Seafox Mine Disposal System against live ordnance during conflict. The minehunter then spent its last few weeks patrolling and mine hunting in the waters off the Misrata coastline as the threat of mines and waterborne IEDs remained high, the spokesman added. The role has now been handed over to Faslane-based HMS Bangor.