15 British Personnel seized by Iranian Navy
Posted: Fri 23 Mar, 2007 5:19 pm
Ministry of Defence
23 Mar 07
15 British naval personnel have been seized by Iranian naval vessels today, 23 March 2007.
The incident took place at approximately 1030 Iraqi time.
The British Personnel were engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters in support of UNSCR 1723 and the government of Iraq.
Operating from HMS Cornwall, the UK boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters.
We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.
The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.
The MOD is currently in the process of informing the next-of-kin of the 15 personnel and would strongly urge the privacy of all families involved to be respected at what will be an extremely difficult time.
Any speculation about what might happen or the way our people may be treated could be genuinely dangerous, and the MOD urges media to refrain from such speculation whilst the Government conducts its urgent discussions with the Iranian authorities.
From Times Online
March 23, 2007
Iranians seize 15 UK marines in Gulf
Fifteen British sailors and Marines were captured by Iranian naval warships in Iraqi territorial waters today, prompting a major diplomatic crisis.
The Ministry of Defence said the 15 were conducting a routine shipping inspection from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall in the north Arabian Gulf, when they were surrounded by Iranian vessels and escorted to waters controlled by Iran.
The Foreign Office said that Iran’s ambassador in London had been summoned and Britain was demanding the servicemen's immediate safe release.
The MoD said the incident happened at around 10.30am local time. “The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters,” a spokesman said.
“We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.
“The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.”
The Pentagon also confirmed the detention, saying that the Britons were in two inflatable boats from the frigate HMS Cornwall during the routine operation. A BBC News 24 reporter on the ship, Ian Pannell, said that they had just boarded a dhow.
“While they were on board, a number of Iranian boats approached the waters in which they were operating - the Royal Navy are insistent that they were operating in Iraqi waters and not Iranian waters - and essentially captured the Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel at gunpoint,” he said.
The area – on the Iran-Iraq border, is of high strategic importance, with British personnel regularly patrolling the Iraqi waters and boarding merchant vessels with UN permission to search them. It is not the first time that British servicemen have been taken captive by Iranian forces in the troubled waters.
In July 2004, eight servicemen - six Royal Marines and two Royal Navy sailors - were seized and detained after their patrol boats were said to have strayed into the Iranian side of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which divides Iran from Iraq and is a crucial transport route for oil supplies.
That incident triggered a dramatic stand-off, with the men blindfolded and held for three days during which they were paraded on Iranian TV, while the captors failed to meet deadlines for the return of British equipment, including boats, weapons and radios.
It was thought the group were on their way to Basra to deliver one of the patrol boats to the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. British authorities denied straying into Iranian territory, with the then Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, saying that the crews were “forcibly escorted” into Iranian waters.
Oil prices rose above $62 a barrel following today's incident. Washington said that no US military personnel were involved.
The latest incident comes at a time of renewed tensions with Iran over Tehran’s enrichment of uranium, which Britain and other Western powers fear could be used to develop a nuclear weapon. It also coincided with fresh claims of Iranian interference in Iraq.
Lieutenant Colonel Justin Maciejewski, the commanding officer at the UK base at Basra Palace, said the Iranians were arming and funding insurgents attacking British troops.
“We have a lot of very modern and quite sophisticated weaponry being used against us - weaponry that could only really have been procured from a state,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“We haven’t found any ‘smoking gun’ but certainly all the circumstantial evidence points to Iranian involvement in the bombings here in Basra, which is disrupting the city to a great extent.
“Local sheikhs and tribal leaders here in Basra - who are desperate to prevent this violence escalating - are telling us that Iranian agents are paying up to 500 dollars a month for young Basrawi men to attack us.”
Earlier, an Iraqi fisherman in Basra told Reuters he had seen the incident in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, that marks the southern stretch of Iraq’s border with Iran, and where British naval boats routinely patrol to clamp down on cross-border smugglers.
The fisherman, who asked not be named, said six or seven foreign military personnel were on two small boats that stopped to check Iranian ships in the Siban area of the waterway, near the al-Faw peninsula that leads into the northern Gulf. When they boarded one ship, at least two Iranian vessels appeared on the scene and the military personnel were detained.
23 Mar 07
15 British naval personnel have been seized by Iranian naval vessels today, 23 March 2007.
The incident took place at approximately 1030 Iraqi time.
The British Personnel were engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters in support of UNSCR 1723 and the government of Iraq.
Operating from HMS Cornwall, the UK boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters.
We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.
The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.
The MOD is currently in the process of informing the next-of-kin of the 15 personnel and would strongly urge the privacy of all families involved to be respected at what will be an extremely difficult time.
Any speculation about what might happen or the way our people may be treated could be genuinely dangerous, and the MOD urges media to refrain from such speculation whilst the Government conducts its urgent discussions with the Iranian authorities.
From Times Online
March 23, 2007
Iranians seize 15 UK marines in Gulf
Fifteen British sailors and Marines were captured by Iranian naval warships in Iraqi territorial waters today, prompting a major diplomatic crisis.
The Ministry of Defence said the 15 were conducting a routine shipping inspection from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall in the north Arabian Gulf, when they were surrounded by Iranian vessels and escorted to waters controlled by Iran.
The Foreign Office said that Iran’s ambassador in London had been summoned and Britain was demanding the servicemen's immediate safe release.
The MoD said the incident happened at around 10.30am local time. “The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters,” a spokesman said.
“We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.
“The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.”
The Pentagon also confirmed the detention, saying that the Britons were in two inflatable boats from the frigate HMS Cornwall during the routine operation. A BBC News 24 reporter on the ship, Ian Pannell, said that they had just boarded a dhow.
“While they were on board, a number of Iranian boats approached the waters in which they were operating - the Royal Navy are insistent that they were operating in Iraqi waters and not Iranian waters - and essentially captured the Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel at gunpoint,” he said.
The area – on the Iran-Iraq border, is of high strategic importance, with British personnel regularly patrolling the Iraqi waters and boarding merchant vessels with UN permission to search them. It is not the first time that British servicemen have been taken captive by Iranian forces in the troubled waters.
In July 2004, eight servicemen - six Royal Marines and two Royal Navy sailors - were seized and detained after their patrol boats were said to have strayed into the Iranian side of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which divides Iran from Iraq and is a crucial transport route for oil supplies.
That incident triggered a dramatic stand-off, with the men blindfolded and held for three days during which they were paraded on Iranian TV, while the captors failed to meet deadlines for the return of British equipment, including boats, weapons and radios.
It was thought the group were on their way to Basra to deliver one of the patrol boats to the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. British authorities denied straying into Iranian territory, with the then Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, saying that the crews were “forcibly escorted” into Iranian waters.
Oil prices rose above $62 a barrel following today's incident. Washington said that no US military personnel were involved.
The latest incident comes at a time of renewed tensions with Iran over Tehran’s enrichment of uranium, which Britain and other Western powers fear could be used to develop a nuclear weapon. It also coincided with fresh claims of Iranian interference in Iraq.
Lieutenant Colonel Justin Maciejewski, the commanding officer at the UK base at Basra Palace, said the Iranians were arming and funding insurgents attacking British troops.
“We have a lot of very modern and quite sophisticated weaponry being used against us - weaponry that could only really have been procured from a state,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“We haven’t found any ‘smoking gun’ but certainly all the circumstantial evidence points to Iranian involvement in the bombings here in Basra, which is disrupting the city to a great extent.
“Local sheikhs and tribal leaders here in Basra - who are desperate to prevent this violence escalating - are telling us that Iranian agents are paying up to 500 dollars a month for young Basrawi men to attack us.”
Earlier, an Iraqi fisherman in Basra told Reuters he had seen the incident in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, that marks the southern stretch of Iraq’s border with Iran, and where British naval boats routinely patrol to clamp down on cross-border smugglers.
The fisherman, who asked not be named, said six or seven foreign military personnel were on two small boats that stopped to check Iranian ships in the Siban area of the waterway, near the al-Faw peninsula that leads into the northern Gulf. When they boarded one ship, at least two Iranian vessels appeared on the scene and the military personnel were detained.
). If theyre already stretched then in theory theres nothing we can do about Iran pushing its weight about. This makes our bark a lot louder than our bite.