Minehunters witness progress made by Iraq's Navy

MINEHUNTERS Chiddingfold and Grimsby left the broad waters of the Gulf behind and sailed up God’s Highway.

The two Bahrain-based ships navigated the tricky Khawr abd Allah as far as Umm Qasr to foster ties with the nascent Iraqi Navy.

Umm Qasr is Iraq’s chief port – and main naval base. For nearly a decade it’s been home to a largely Anglo-American training and advisory team who’ve been helping to forge a new Iraqi Navy in the post-Saddam Hussein world.

The work of the Allied team – in its latest incarnation known as the Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission Navy or ITAM-N (Navy News readers will probably remember it best as the NaTT or Naval Transition Team) – is all but done.

The RN vessels spent two days in Umm Qasr seeing the progress made, getting to know their Iraqi counterparts, and laying on a demonstration for international VIPs.

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