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Ahmadinejad: up to his old hostage-taking tricks?
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| By israelinsider staff March 23, 2007 |
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An Iranian naval patrol fleet seized 15 British marines and sailors who had boarded a vessel suspected of smuggling cars off the coast of Iraq, military officials said. The British government demanded the safe return of its troops and called Tehran's ambassador in London to explain the incident.
The marines and sailors were apprehended by up to six ships from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy, which claimed that they had violated Iranian waters in the Shatt al-Arab, a disputed waterway marking the border between Iraq and Iran in the Persian Gulf.
According to a report by CNN, Commodore Nick Lambert, commander of the HMS Cornwall -- the frigate from which the British patrol had been deployed -- said the incident did not involve fighting or use of weapons. "We've been assured from the scant communications that we've had from the Iranians at the tactical level that the 15 people are safely in their hands," he said.
Lambert said the British sailors had been on a "normal, routine boarding" of a vessel that had aroused suspicions. British military patrols have been given authority to board vessels in Iraqi waters under United Nations mandate and with the permission of the government in Baghdad.
Lambert said there is "absolutely no doubt in my mind" that the marines were in Iraqi waters. But, he said, "The extent and the definition of territorial waters in this part of the world is very complicated... We may well find, and I hope we find, that this is a simple misunderstanding at a tactical level," he said.
The British defense ministry said: "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level."
There was no immediate comment from Iranian officials, and CNN's Aneesh Raman in Tehran said there had been no mention of the incident on Iranian TV.
There was a previous similar incident in 2004, CNN reported, when Iran stopped three British boats and seized eight sailors and six marines. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said at the time the three boats had crossed into Iran's territorial waters. The detained servicemen appeared on Iranian television blindfolded. They were released after Iran said it determined they had mistakenly crossed into Iran's waters.
Britain, the United States' main ally in Iraq, has a large military presence in southern Iraq, based out of the Shatt al-Arab port of Basra. A senior British Army officer on Friday accused Iranian agents of paying Iraqi militia to carry out attacks on coalition forces around Basra.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was amon the leaders of the Revolutionary Guard terror group that took scores on hostages in the American Embassy in 1979.
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