WORLD / Middle East
Britain says 15 sailors detained by Iran
(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-23 20:28
LONDON - Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors in Iraqi waters
on Friday, the British Ministry of Defense said.
British soldiers patrol in Kabul in June 2006. British troops in
Afghanistan have changed tactics, targeting top Taliban leaders in order
to counter their switch to a new wave of bombings and suicide attacks, a
senior commander said on Tuesday. [AFP]
The British Navy personnel were "engaged in routine boarding operations
of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed
their inspection of a merchant ship when they were accosted by Iranian
vessels, the ministry said.
"We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the
highest level and ... the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the
Foreign Office," the ministry said.
A Pentagon official said the Britons were in two inflatable boats from
the frigate H.M.S. Cornwall during a routine smuggling investigation,
said the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak about the incident.
He said the confrontation happened as the British contingent was
traveling along the boundary of territorial waters between Iran and Iraq.
They were detained by the Revolutionary Guard's navy, he said.
A fisherman who said he was with a group of Iraqis from the southern city
of Basra fishing in Iraqi waters in the northern area of the Gulf said he
saw the Iranian seizure. The fisherman declined to be identified because
of security concerns.
"Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were
searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in
the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and
took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters."
The Britain government said it had demanded "the immediate and safe
return of our people and equipment."
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