KEY POINTS:
CANBERRA - A no-nonsense response enabled Australian sailors to escape a tense four-hour standoff with Iranian gunboats in the Persian Gulf, defence says.
The 2004 incident, which only came to light today, has similarities with the capture of British sailors in the Gulf earlier this year by Iranian
forces.
In the previously undisclosed encounter, Royal Australian Navy sailors in December 2004 were evacuated by helicopter after being surrounded by five Iranian gunboats.
The sailors from the frigate HMAS Adelaide had boarded a commercial vessel from inflatable boats near the Iraq-Iran maritime border for a routine inspection of a grounded cargo ship.
An Iranian gunboat approached and its armed personnel made "very overt gestures", said Commodore Steve Gilmore, who once commanded coalition forces in the Gulf.
The Australian commander immediately ordered his men to return to the small cargo ship, MV Shams.
"He got his boarding party back on to the ship and established a very credible and appropriate defensive position," Commodore Gilmore told reporters in Canberra.
Another four Iranian military boats carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers arrived to reinforce their compatriots over the next 45 minutes, he said.
Citing various military sources, BBC reporter Frank Gardner said the Australians had pointed their guns at the Iranians and used "colourful language" to defuse the incident.
Commodore Gilmore said: "As Australians, I think we all know our capacity to engage, to defuse by discussion and they indeed did that."
After what he called a tense four-hour standoff, the Australians were able to leave MV Shams by helicopter for the Adelaide.
No shots were fired during the encounter.
"The determined approach, the no-nonsense approach of the Australian boarding party, was able to effectively manage that situation," Commodore Gilmore said.
He said the intentions of the Iranians had not been clear.
Two members of the Australian team were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for their conduct during the incident.
In March, British sailors were captured while on a similar operation and were paraded on Iranian television before being eventually released.
Some of them later ran into controversy for being allowed to sell their stories to the British media.
"(The Australians) reacted, I'm told, incredibly quickly, whereas the Brits were caught at their most vulnerable moment, climbing down off the ship (and) getting into their boats," Mr Gardner told ABC radio.
He said the British should be embarrassed about the incident but the issue was whether military intelligence had been passed on.
Commodore Gilmore said there were similarities and differences between the two incidents.
"It's very difficult to predict the (British) outcome should have been the same as the Australian outcome because it wasn't the same circumstances."
Prime Minister John Howard said he had not been aware of the event involving the Australians before today.
"In the past, incidents like this have occurred. There's a lot of disputed territorial water in this area," Mr Howard told ABC radio.
"What the Australians are doing is very dangerous work."
- AAP
