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The US Navy Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran.

The maneuvers bring together two strike groups of US warships and more than a hundred US warplanes to conduct simulated air warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes.

The US exercises come just four days after Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines who had, Iran said, strayed into Iranian waters. Britain and the US Navy have insisted the British sailors were operating in Iraqi waters.

US Navy Commander Kevin Aandahl said the US maneuvers were not organized in response to the capture of the British sailors nor were they meant to threaten the Islamic Republic, whose navy operates in the same waters.

He declined to specify when the Navy planned the exercises.

Aandahl said the US warships would stay out of Iranian territorial waters, which extend 12 miles off the Iranian coast.

A French naval strike group, led by the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, was operating simultaneously just outside the Gulf. But the French ships were supporting the NATO forces in Afghanistan and not taking part in the US maneuvers, officials said.

Overall, the exercises involve more than 10,000 US personnel on warships and aircraft making simulated attacks on enemy shipping with aircraft and ships, hunting enemy submarines and finding mines.

"What it should be seen as by Iran or anyone else is that it's for regional stability and security," Aandahl said. "These ships are just another demonstration of that. If there's a destabilizing effect, it's Iran's behavior."

'Different phase'

The maneuvers came as British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that Britain hopes diplomacy will win the release of 15 sailors and marines detained by Iran but is prepared to move to a "different phase" if negotiations fail.

Britain has said the Royal Navy crew were seized on Friday just after they completed a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border with Iran is disputed.

"I hope we manage to get them (the Iranian government) to realize they have to release them," Blair said in an interview with GMTV. "If not, then this will move into a different phase."

Asked what that meant, Blair said: "Well, we will just have to see, but what they should understand is that we cannot have a situation where our servicemen and women are seized when actually they are in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate, patrolling perfectly rightly and in accordance with that mandate, and then effectively captured and taken to Iran."
 
Crew are treated well: Iran

Blair said his primary concern was the welfare of the Royal Navy personnel, which include Faye Turney, 26, the only woman among the crew.

Iran said Tuesday the 15 crew are healthy and are being treated well, and that Turney had been given privacy.

"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been treated with humanitarian and moral behavior," said Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

(China Daily via agencies March 28, 2007)