IRAQ (24 Mar 2003) -- Australian navy clearance divers began checking Iraq's southern port for mines as part of a clearance operation which could last weeks. Commander of Australian Forces in the Middle East Brigadier Maurie McNarn said Australian forces had discovered some 139 sea-mines both on vessels and in warehouses but it wasn't known if any were in the water. He said it had to be assumed that Iraqi forces had succeeded in laying at least some mines in the waterway known as the Khawr Abd 'Allah (KAA) which leads to the port of Umm Qasr and Iraq's second largest city of Basra. This waterway would be needed for delivery of humanitarian aid to the country. Brigadier McNarn said a mine clearance operation was now under way at Umm Qasr involving Australian navy clearance divers from HMAS Kanimbla. "We know we intercepted a certain number of mines on the tugs which was a particularly good catch by the Australian sailors that did that," he told reporters. "We have also have found some mines in the warehouse. "However, we have also found other boats in the Umm Qasr area which would indicate that they may have laid mines. That is all we can account for. "You have to work on the worst case. That mine clearance operation is running now up the KAA ... until we go through that in painful detail, we won't know." So far Australian and other coalition forces have discovered elderly horned contact mines and newer Italian-supplied Manta influence mines. Either is capable of sinking or crippling the largest ships. In an update on the activities of Australian forces, Brigadier McNarn indicated Australian Special Air Service Regiment troops were in a specific area of operations in western Iraq. | Australian Navy Clearance Divers He said they had engaged Iraqi units up to platoon-size, using direct fire weapons and through calling in air support. Some Iraqi forces quit and ran while others were regarded as hard-core members of the special security organisation, intelligence or special forces. "As we did in Afghanistan we have our own area of operations as we do things in our own particular way," Brigadier McNarn said. | 
