Royal Navy blockade forces Gaddafi's gunboats off the ocean

THE naval blockade of Libya is keeping Colonel Gaddafi's gunboats holed up in port.

Whitehall says since frigates HMS Westminster and Cumberland began enforcing the United Nations Resolution with other Allied naval forces on Friday, the dictator's ships had shown “a very marked reluctance” to leave their bases.

Until the UN Resolution was enforced, Gaddafi’s ships had been used to bombard targets in rebel-held locations ashore.

Capt Karl Evans, former T-boat commander and operations officer on the Naval Staff, said: "We had seen Libyan surface ships used to shell shore positions. That's now stopped. Our ships and their capabilities may well be a factor in why that's stopped."

As well as ensuring arms do not slip through the naval cordon drawn across the c, both ships are using their surveillance suites to monitor activities along the Libyan coast, providing vital intelligence for the overall mission.

Both frigates remain on station off the Libyan coast in full defence posture – defence watches, anti-flash, upper deck guns manned – while HMS Triumph is being held in the Mediterranean.

In a rare move – submarine operations are normally classified – Prime Minister David Cameron revealed that Triumph fired the first shots of Britain’s involvement in the operation, launching cruise missile strikes at 7pm on Saturday.

That was followed by co-ordinated strikes by the RAF against military targets in Libya, then a second night of strikes, including further cruise missile launches by the Trafalgar-class submarine.

She’s not conducted more firings since the first two nights of Operation Ellamy – codename for the British operation to enforce the UN Resolution – but Capt Evans said Triumph would stay off the Libyan coast as long as the mission demanded.

“As long as that submarine is there we have the ability to reach targets within 1,000 miles – and to deliver with precision 1,000-pound munitions,” he added.

Maj Gen John Lorimer, the Chief of Defence Staff’s spokesman, said the precise results of the four-day campaign against Gaddafi’s forces were still being analysed.

But he said there was no doubt that the international effort had spared Benghazi – the kernel of resistance against the Libyan dictator’s regime – from a savage occupation.

“Last Friday, regime troops were on the outskirts of Benghazi. Col Gaddafi vowed that his men would be going from house to house, room to room, to burn out the opposition. The military intervention to enforce the UN Resolution has stopped that attack in its tracks,” Maj Gen Lorimer added.