Iranian operatives have captured 15 British Sailors and Royal Marines and taken them to Tehran.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ‘Naval forces of Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guards captured 15 British sailors and marines at gunpoint Friday in the Persian Gulf’ an audacious move coming during heightened tensions between the West and Iran.
U.S. and British officials said a boarding party from the frigate HMS Cornwall was seized about 10:30 a.m. during a routine inspection of a merchant ship inside Iraqi territorial waters near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway.
Britain has responded by demanding their immediate and safe release.
Manama: Britain demanded the immediate return of 15 British naval personnel seized at gunpoint yesterday by Iranian navy, the Bahrain-based US Navy said.
Iranian forces captured the servicemen in the mouth of the waterway that separates Iran and Iraq, triggering a crisis at a time of heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The Britons were seized as they were “engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi waters,” the US Navy said in a statement sent to Gulf News.
Encircled by gunboats
The British Defence Ministry said separately that two boatloads of sailors and marines from the naval frigate Cornwall had finished searching a merchant vessel in Iraqi waters on a UN-approved mission when Iranian gunboats encircled and captured them.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett was quoted as saying she was “extremely disturbed”. Britain summoned Iran’s ambassador in London and protested through its embassy in Tehran. “We sought a full explanation of what happened … we expect immediate and safe return of our service personnel,” Beckett told Reuters.
A US Navy spokesman said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had radioed a British warship explaining that no harm had come to the servicemen and that they were seized because they were in Iranian waters. However, the British Defence Ministry said the Iranians took custody of the personnel in Iraqi waters.
The Iranians are claiming the British Sailors were illegally in Iranian waters. They claim they have obtained confessions from the 15 Sailors and Marines verifying they were operating illegally in Iranian waters.
TEHRAN, Mar 24 - Iran showed no sign Saturday of readying a swift release of 15 British troops detained while patrolling off Iraq, saying they strayed into its territorial waters in a violation of its sovereignty, AFP reported.
Britain has demanded the immediate safe return of the 15 sailors and marines its says were seized in Iraqi territorial waters while conducting “routine” anti-smuggling operations.
But the Iranian foreign ministry angrily dismissed the British demands, insisting that the naval patrol was “suspect” and “illegal”.
Germany and the European Union have joined Britain in calling for the immediate release of these Sailors and Marines.
Britain has accused Iran of supplying troops and equipment to the Shia who are fighting British troops in south Iraq. This abduction also comes on the eve of the UN Security Council voting on whether or not to tighten sanctions on Iran for it’s continuation of it’s nuclear development. It also comes on the heels of Iran’s President Ahmadinejad abruptly canceling his plans to attend the UN
Jihad Watch writes that the British Sailors will be used as bargaining chips.
They’re counting on the British to behave as Western governments almost always behave these days: responding to provocations with concessions.
Last night I heard that PM Tony Blair met with his COBRA and MI6 teams already by reading the NY Post sister British tabloid The Sun (www.thesun.co.uk). The Iranian Islamomaniacs abducted 63 U.S. Embassy hostages in November 1979 and they rotted in captivity for 444 days while Jimmy Carter tried NEGOTIATING with the bastards. Yeah - we screwed up the recue mission in the desert when sand storms made for a bad day. These 15 British sailors (7) and royal marines (8) will be interrogated, tortured, abused and accused of international espionage. We went through similar scenarios in our US Armed Forces Survival School training in the 80’s. They’ll be photographed, exploited and told to sign bogus statements. Russian Roulette will be administered with blanks. The mosques in Britain will be…
lively now, eh? Keep on blogging the righteous and truth:
“Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of slavery? ….I know not what course others may take, but as for me - GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!”
– Virginian Patrick Henry on March 23, 1775!
And that line is likely the closest thing to the truth we’re going to see…
Iran, if allowed to get by with this, will only become more bold, and someone is going to have to stand up and take them on, and knock them to the ground…
Longhorn Fred - I served in war and peace and saw 70 years of Communism crumble in reference to the Soviets and Iron-Bloc Warsaw Pact. Communism did fail, and you’re right Fred, Islamofascism - another evil ‘ism’ - will also be CRUSHED with lethal force! The only thing that Muslims respect is FORCE and when they see negotiating - it’s a sign of weakness. Hook ‘em horns Fred and continue to fight the right to write righteousness sir. GOD, not Allah, bless US and deliver US from evil, from Communism, from Islamofascism, and from Liberalism! - 31 Red States of America
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