Everyone In The Gulf Was Shocked To See This Iraqi Patrol Boat

I've been in the Persian Gulf covering the huge international mine clearing exercise less than 300 miles from the Strait of Hormuz, and the Navy just dropped all the media back off in Bahrain.

That means you'll be seeing a lot of coverage on CNN, ABC, BBC, and Al Jazeera popping up over the next few days about some of the things that went on out here. The big news organizations all filmed the press conferences, including the one we received yesterday morning after we boarded the USS Ponce.

We were surprised at that briefing when we were shown a list of countries participating in the exercise that we'd not seen before. Unfortunately, our shock must have given us away because a senior public affairs officer, a Navy Captain, promptly told us we were forbidden to report any of the names we'd seen that hadn't been released to the public.

Like it or not, we all agreed, but today aboard the Ponce one of the countries ship's came close enough for me to snap this picture with a telephoto lens. It's the Iraqi patrol boat P-307 and it was sailing alongside the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Gridley. 

The P-307 was delivered to Iraq in March 2012, carries a 30mm cannon and is manned by crew of 25 sailors. I talked to a Navy officer who told me if I was able to see it, I could go ahead and report it. Just to be sure, I asked him before we parted if he were sure no one would be upset about these pictures being posted, and he said "Not at this point. No."

The P-307 wasn't there long, and right after I snapped the first couple of shots it took a hard left away from the far side of the Gridley, and disappeared into the distance.

It's interesting that some of the countries we were shown don't want their names associated with an exercise that, whether anyone here will admit it or not, is designed to ease the possibility of Iran actually mining the Strait of Hormuz. But it's understandable Iraq wouldn't want the world to know — especially as its relationship with Iran seems to be growing closer.

Reuters reports that Tehran has been granted use of Iraqi airspace to transport weapons to Syria, and here they are side-by-side the U.S. Navy and its allies, in the Persian Gulf, 80 miles from the coast of Iran, as part of an effort (basically) directed at Tehran's mining threats.