The navy is preparing contingency plans for a mass evacuation of British citizens from Syria and neighbouring countries, as growing violence has caused tens of thousands to flee major cities.
The flotilla from the The Response Force Task Group will include the helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious Photo: ROYAL NAVY
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
8:15AM BST 21 Jul 2012
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A substantial Navy task force will deploy to the eastern Mediterranean for large scale exercises after the Olympics but will have the capability to help civilians fleeing the growing violence.
The flotilla from the The Response Force Task Group will include the helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious and the amphibious ship HMS Bulwark ferrying 45 Commando, Royal Marines.
The force will carry out amphibious landings in Sardinia, Albania and Turkey then is likely to “loiter” off Cyprus, 100 miles from the Syria mainland.
Navy planners said the fleet was a precautionary measure to evacuate British passport holders from across the Middle East.
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“It’s very, very possible if it goes pear-shaped with floods of refugees then we have a responsibility to look after our people out there,” senior Navy commander said.
A Ministry of Defence source said: “There is no question at this stage of a combat role, our aim is purely to consider contingency plans to evacuate British nationals if there are ‘proxy conflicts’ in the Lebanon and Jordan.
“The worst case scenario would be terrorist attacks in Lebanon and Jordan if the Syrian government seeks to de-stabilise the entire region.”
It is understood that special forces and diplomats have been in the region assessing the number of British passports holders who have fled across the border from Syria into the Lebanon and Jordan and drawing up evacuation plans. More than 30,000 people have fled into Lebanon alone in the past two days, according to the United Nations.
Senior officers have been briefed that there will be no direct intervention in Syria but there is a strong possibility of “re-deployment”.
The fleet will be the biggest since the HMS Ocean led attacks on Libya last year. Illustrious will carry Apache attack helicopters from 656 Squadron, Army Air Corps, veterans of the mission against Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces last year.
The latest Type 45 destroyer HMS Defender will provide air defence particularly against Syria’s anti-ship cruise missiles.
The fleet will more than double in firepower when it is joined by the French carrier Charles de Gaulle, equipped with a strike force of Rafale fighters and escort ships.
A Royal Navy spokesman said: “The Response Force Task Group was established as a high readiness, multi-faceted maritime capability to respond to crisis events around the world."
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