Anti-Terror Sweep – A small party of Royal Navy personnel at Bahrain have overseen a concerted effort to tackle terrorism and piracy in the seas East of Suez       Over five days, an international force of warships and coast guard vessels focused their attention on either side of the crucial 11 mile wide Bab-el-Mandeb Strait separating the Arabian Peninsula from Africa.    There is no Royal Navy warship here - the two British Type 23 Frigates assigned to the East of Suez maritime security mission, (NORTHUMBERLAND and MONMOUTH) were elsewhere carrying out similar policing duties.   But five vessels in Combined Task Force 150 were directed by the British party of Sailors and Royal Marines, choreographing Operation Wenlock - as the five day sweep was codenamed.

Among the warships participating in Operation Wenlock were the Canadian Halifax Class Frigate REGINA operating in the southern Red Sea with Yemeni personnel embarked, while the Australian Anzac Class Frigate ANZAC in the Gulf of Aden with Djiboutian Navy and Coast Guard personnel on board.    Supporting the operation in the Gulf of Aden were Djiboutian patrol craft,    The Pakistani Zulfiquar Class Frigate SHAMSHEER and the French Anti-Submarine Frigate DUPLEIX with the US Navy Tanker PATUXENT in attendance.