Mine hunters take well-deserved break in Malta

Two British Navy mine-hunting vessels sailed into the Grand Harbour yesterday on their way to the UK after spending 30 months conducting mine counter-measure operations off Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf.

HMS Blyth and HMS Ramsey, in Malta until Monday, use high definition sonar to search for anti-shipping mines. Since leaving Bahrain, both ships have been conducting maritime security operations off the coast of Somalia and through the Gulf of Aden as the threat and rate of pirate attacks on merchant shipping become increasingly frequent.

This is HMS Blyth's and HMS Ramsey's first stop in European waters since November 2006. The vessels are berthed at Pinto Wharf, Valletta, but are not open to the public.