UK Royal Marines reportedly deployed to Gulf in wake of tanker attacks blamed on Iran...

via Sputnik.

The reported development comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East as the United States and its regional allies have accused Iran of orchestrating an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier this week. Tehran has strongly rejected the allegations as unfounded.

The Royal Marines are being deployed to the Gulf of Oman following an incident, in which two oil tankers were targeted near the Strait of Hormuz on 13 June, causing explosions and a fire on at least one of them, the Daily Star reported, citing unnamed sources.

The troops will purportedly be tasked with keeping British vessels safe, using equipment to search the open sea for “fast Iranian attack craft” and “terminate” them if deemed necessary.

Story here. 

Ok.  This crystalizes things for me.

The Brits obviously have intel that says that combat swimmers or fast boat teams laid the mines.

Forget drones.

This response tells me we're dealing with the Quds Force...again.

I'd love to see a Tom Clancy style response from a united NATO Special Ops Force that hunted those bastards to extinction.

This also brings up another issue though.

From my understanding of how the Quds Force operates, they have a level of autonomy that might be surprising to many.  They could have carried out these ops WITHOUT the approval of many in that govt.

Another reason (if I'm correct) for a measured response.

Just like we have various factions beating war drums so do they....