Start of war? 15 Royal Marines and sailors seized by Iranians
- Thread starter CBC News
- Start date
Fifteen Royal Marines and sailors seized by Iranians
23rd March 2007
Fifteen British sailors and marines were seized at gunpoint by Iranian forces in the Gulf today.
The men were in two inflatable boats on the Shatt al Arab waterway near Basra (Iraqi waters, not Iranian) when they were surrounded by vessels from the Revolutionary Guard.
On patrol: British marines on Iraq's Shatt al Arab waterway. A group of 15, including sailors, were seized from their boats in the same area today
They are believed to have been taken to an Iranian base where they are being held.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett summoned Iran's ambassador to London, Rasoul Movahedian, to the Foreign Office.
She demanded their immediate release and was expected to warn Iran not to repeat what happened in 2004 when six Royal Marines and two sailors were seized and paraded blindfolded on Iranian TV.
They were accused of spying and some were told they were going to be executed before being released after three days.
Today, the marines and sailors from HMS Cornwall had just searched a dhow which was suspected of carrying smuggled cars.
The Ministry of Defence insisted the men were in Iraqi waters and had not strayed into Iranian territory because they were using global positioning systems.
A spokesman said: "At 10.30 Iraqi time 15 British personnel engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters were seized by Iranian naval vessels.
"The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when 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. The Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."
Flashback: Hostages paraded on TV in 2004. Below: Iran's ambassador to London, Rasoul Movahedian, was summoned to the Foreign Office by Margaret Beckett
Tony Blair was being kept fully informed about developments.
The men were seized hours after a senior British Army officer backed claims that Iranian agents are paying Iraqi men in Basra £250 a month to attack British troops.
The commanding officer of HMS Cornwall, Commodore Nick Lambert,told the BBC: "My immediate concern obviously is for my people.
"I have got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians. My immediate concern is that their safety and their safe return to me is ensured.
"I can assure all of the families who are listening out there that everything is being done at the highest level of the UK Government - and indeed of the coalition structure that we are working under - to ensure that safe return as soon as possible."
He stressed that he hoped the incident was due to a "misunderstanding" and that "clarification" would come shortly from the Iranian authorities.
Asked about the previous seizure of Royal Navy personnel, he said: "It's happened before. That's the nature of the beast we are working with."
Commodore Lambert insisted that there was no doubt in his mind that the marines and sailors were in Iraqi waters.
They are said to be safe and well, according to reports.
British ships routinely patrol the waterway to ensure Iraq's oil supplies can be exported.
BBC reporter Ian Pannell on HMS Cornwall said a number of Iranian boats approached the two inflatables "and essentially captured the Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel at gunpoint".
As part of the diplomatic effort the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, Peter Ricketts, was due to warn Tehran that the men must be released.
dailymail.co.uk
---------
Come on, Iran! Bring it on, you ****ing idiots!
23rd March 2007
Fifteen British sailors and marines were seized at gunpoint by Iranian forces in the Gulf today.
The men were in two inflatable boats on the Shatt al Arab waterway near Basra (Iraqi waters, not Iranian) when they were surrounded by vessels from the Revolutionary Guard.
On patrol: British marines on Iraq's Shatt al Arab waterway. A group of 15, including sailors, were seized from their boats in the same area today
They are believed to have been taken to an Iranian base where they are being held.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett summoned Iran's ambassador to London, Rasoul Movahedian, to the Foreign Office.
She demanded their immediate release and was expected to warn Iran not to repeat what happened in 2004 when six Royal Marines and two sailors were seized and paraded blindfolded on Iranian TV.
They were accused of spying and some were told they were going to be executed before being released after three days.
Today, the marines and sailors from HMS Cornwall had just searched a dhow which was suspected of carrying smuggled cars.
The Ministry of Defence insisted the men were in Iraqi waters and had not strayed into Iranian territory because they were using global positioning systems.
A spokesman said: "At 10.30 Iraqi time 15 British personnel engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters were seized by Iranian naval vessels.
"The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when 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. The Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."
Tony Blair was being kept fully informed about developments.
The men were seized hours after a senior British Army officer backed claims that Iranian agents are paying Iraqi men in Basra £250 a month to attack British troops.
The commanding officer of HMS Cornwall, Commodore Nick Lambert,told the BBC: "My immediate concern obviously is for my people.
"I have got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians. My immediate concern is that their safety and their safe return to me is ensured.
"I can assure all of the families who are listening out there that everything is being done at the highest level of the UK Government - and indeed of the coalition structure that we are working under - to ensure that safe return as soon as possible."
He stressed that he hoped the incident was due to a "misunderstanding" and that "clarification" would come shortly from the Iranian authorities.
Asked about the previous seizure of Royal Navy personnel, he said: "It's happened before. That's the nature of the beast we are working with."
Commodore Lambert insisted that there was no doubt in his mind that the marines and sailors were in Iraqi waters.
They are said to be safe and well, according to reports.
British ships routinely patrol the waterway to ensure Iraq's oil supplies can be exported.
BBC reporter Ian Pannell on HMS Cornwall said a number of Iranian boats approached the two inflatables "and essentially captured the Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel at gunpoint".
As part of the diplomatic effort the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, Peter Ricketts, was due to warn Tehran that the men must be released.
dailymail.co.uk
---------
Come on, Iran! Bring it on, you ****ing idiots!
Last edited:
that was a really dumb move by IRAN, but I am wondering to myself already... were the soldiers up to good things? or were they pushing their luck? I'm sure we'll never find out anyway, and bush is determined to go to war with iran and so of course is anyone else who doesnt want to get a bomb on their head
What Iran did is an act of war. If the reports are correct and the British soldiers were in Iraqi waters, then Britain has every right to go in and rescue them.
This could get ugly.
This could get ugly.
Then you may as well take your magical eraser and delete 95% of everything that has ever been posted on this site.
haha maybe. My point being that we'll never know what happened. nothing that comes from the mainstream media OR the loony-bin conspiracy theorist groups is trustworthy.
I personally feel that's the act of aggression that will spark this war.....
well, if it's true they WERE in Iraqi water...it certainly is an act of war (I know our allies have gone to war with US for less)
well, if it's true they WERE in Iraqi water...it certainly is an act of war (I know our allies have gone to war with US for less)
You do know that they had 'strayed' into Iranian waters right? Even in 2004 I'm quite sure the navy had the means to tell where they actuall were.
You seem to have left this part out in your post. Even when apprehended in another countries waters the British 'insisted on their immediate release'. They were in Iran illegally.
This time the boat they boarded was Iranian, do you even care if it was headed for Iran or leaveing iran for other ports. It would seem that if Iran wanted to 'smuggle cars into Iraq' they could drive them there. (are cars now a banned item in Iraq?)
Did you also know that the US boat that shot down an Iranian airliner was in Iranian waters at the time they fired?
well it sucks, but on the other hand..if the british troops were in britain where they belonged......
Ah, but let's not play that one, ONE of the myriad of reasons for Islamic fundamentalists attacking is that half the continent once belonged to them.....well Iran once belonged to Great Britain.
not that that is a clever reason, but if it's good for the goose
The incident I'm talking about was the 2004 event.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3077540.stm
" 21 June 2004: Eight British sailors are held in Iran after their vessel apparently strays into Iranian waters near the border with Iraq. They are released three days later following negotiations between British diplomats and Iranian officials."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3828377.stm
"Al-Alam broadcast footage of the two men reading statements, standing next to a river. "My name is Thomas Hawkins from the British Royal Navy, number D04428," said the first officer.
"I was arrested yesterday [Monday] by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards after we entered Iranian territorial waters," he said, according to the Arabic voice-over.
"Our team of three boats and eight crew entered Iranian waters by mistake. We apologise because this was a big mistake," he said."
The airliner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655"Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air that flew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, UAE. On Sunday July 3, 1988, the aircraft flying IR655 was shot down by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes between Bandar Abbas and Dubai, killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard, including 38 non-Iranians and 66 children. The Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters at the time of the shoot-down."
Do you have any info on just how the UN worded the 'permissions' for boarding ships, like is it a 'blanket authority' or are there any restrictions on who can be boarded?
troops generally belong wherever they're posted. Quite often this isn't their homeland. American troops belong in america? hmm not precisely although things might (or might not) be better if they were... you see my point?
I think he is talking about the incident in 2004 in which they were in the Iranian part of the Shatal Arab (sic) Waterway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
My post is waiting an OK from the mods, hopefully this one gets through
My post is waiting an OK from the mods, hopefully this one gets through
Fifteen Royal Marines and sailors seized by Iranians
23rd March 2007
Fifteen British sailors and marines were seized at gunpoint by Iranian forces in the Gulf today.
The men were in two inflatable boats on the Shatt al Arab waterway near Basra (Iraqi waters, not Iranian) when they were surrounded by vessels from the Revolutionary Guard.
On patrol: British marines on Iraq's Shatt al Arab waterway. A group of 15, including sailors, were seized from their boats in the same area today
They are believed to have been taken to an Iranian base where they are being held.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett summoned Iran's ambassador to London, Rasoul Movahedian, to the Foreign Office.
She demanded their immediate release and was expected to warn Iran not to repeat what happened in 2004 when six Royal Marines and two sailors were seized and paraded blindfolded on Iranian TV.
They were accused of spying and some were told they were going to be executed before being released after three days.
Today, the marines and sailors from HMS Cornwall had just searched a dhow which was suspected of carrying smuggled cars.
The Ministry of Defence insisted the men were in Iraqi waters and had not strayed into Iranian territory because they were using global positioning systems.
A spokesman said: "At 10.30 Iraqi time 15 British personnel engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters were seized by Iranian naval vessels.
"The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when 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. The Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."
Flashback: Hostages paraded on TV in 2004. Below: Iran's ambassador to London, Rasoul Movahedian, was summoned to the Foreign Office by Margaret Beckett
Tony Blair was being kept fully informed about developments.
The men were seized hours after a senior British Army officer backed claims that Iranian agents are paying Iraqi men in Basra £250 a month to attack British troops.
The commanding officer of HMS Cornwall, Commodore Nick Lambert,told the BBC: "My immediate concern obviously is for my people.
"I have got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians. My immediate concern is that their safety and their safe return to me is ensured.
"I can assure all of the families who are listening out there that everything is being done at the highest level of the UK Government - and indeed of the coalition structure that we are working under - to ensure that safe return as soon as possible."
He stressed that he hoped the incident was due to a "misunderstanding" and that "clarification" would come shortly from the Iranian authorities.
Asked about the previous seizure of Royal Navy personnel, he said: "It's happened before. That's the nature of the beast we are working with."
Commodore Lambert insisted that there was no doubt in his mind that the marines and sailors were in Iraqi waters.
They are said to be safe and well, according to reports.
British ships routinely patrol the waterway to ensure Iraq's oil supplies can be exported.
BBC reporter Ian Pannell on HMS Cornwall said a number of Iranian boats approached the two inflatables "and essentially captured the Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel at gunpoint".
As part of the diplomatic effort the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, Peter Ricketts, was due to warn Tehran that the men must be released.
dailymail.co.uk
---------
Come on, Iran! Bring it on, you ****ing idiots!
Where was the ship that the inflatables came from? Those Royal Marines should have just gone back to the ship or should have stalled and radioed for help. It could not have been that far away. Now they are going to be stuck in Iran for who knows how long. Not very good response time for your navy.