Another front opens up
U.S. to Change Tactics After Gulf Attacks
Assaults on Oil Terminals Lead to Tighter Security
By Josh White and Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 27, 2004; Page A16
A pair of nearly concurrent suicide bombing attacks on oil terminals in the Persian Gulf on Saturday -- the first waterborne assaults since the United States invaded Iraq -- has spurred the American military to significantly tighten security and change engagement tactics.
The attacks did little damage to the Iraqi Khawr al Amaya and al Basra oil terminals in the northern Gulf, but one explosion killed two Navy sailors and a Coast Guardsman, Nathan Bruckenthal, 24, a Herndon High School graduate and the first member of the U.S. Coast Guard to be killed in combat since Vietnam. Both attacks came from small boats that approached separate oil terminals at sea, using tactics similar to the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 off the coast of Yemen.
Naval officials said the attacks -- one from a dhow, or small sailing boat, and the other involving two speedboats -- were unprecedented during Operation Iraqi Freedom and caused immediate concern about increased versatility on the part of insurgents and terrorists fighting coalition forces. Pentagon officials said the attacks had not come entirely as a surprise, since intelligence reports had predicted for some time that such assaults could occur.
Though thwarted, the attacks exposed a potential weakness in naval security and prompted the tight enforcement of wide exclusionary zones and the examination of boarding and interception procedures. A senior military officer at the Pentagon said the attacks also prompted the dispatch of an emergency response force of about 50 Marines to the terminals, with orders to remain in the area for the near term.
"Before this, we had something posted advising boaters to stand clear of the area, but now enforcement will become more stringent," the officer said. "We're going to be more inclined to shoot first."
