Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

This comes from foxnews.com

Iranian Vessels Seize 15 British Navy Personnel in Iraqi Waters


Friday, March 23, 2007


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian naval vessels on Friday seized 15 British sailors who had boarded a merchant ship in Iraqi waters of the Persian Gulf as part of efforts to protect the Iraqi coastline and its oil terminals, U.S. and British officials said.

The British government summoned the Iranian ambassador in London and demanded "the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment." The U.S. Navy, which operates off the Iraqi coast along with British forces, said Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces were responsible.

The British Navy personnel were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed a ship inspection when they were accosted by Iranian vessels, Britain's Defense Ministry said.

"We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level," the ministry said.

No one could be immediately reached for comment at either government offices in Iran or at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad or at the U.N. mission. Iran is in the middle of its New Year holiday when almost all government offices close.

A U.S. official said the incident occurred just outside a long-disputed waterway called the Shatt al-Arab dividing Iraq and Iran. It came as tensions were running high in the Persian Gulf following Iran's defiance of U.N. Security Council orders to rollback on its nuclear program and U.S. allegations that Iran is arming Shiite militias in Iraq.

U.S. officials had expressed concern that with much military hardware concentrated in the Persian Gulf, just such a small incident could spiral out of control and trigger a major armed confrontation.

The United States, Britain's chief ally, has built up its naval forces in the Gulf in a show of strength directed at Iran. Two American carriers, including the USS John C. Stennis — backed by a strike group with more than 6,500 sailors and Marines and with additional minesweeping ships — arrived in the region in recent months, ratcheting up tensions with Iran.

Earlier this week, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said if Western countries "want to treat us with threats and enforcement of coercion and violence, undoubtedly they must know that the Iranian nation and authorities will use all their capacities to strike enemies that attack."

In February, President Bush said: "The Iranian people are good, honest, decent people and they've got a government that is belligerent, loud, noisy, threatening — a government which is in defiance of the rest of the world and says, 'We want a nuclear weapon."'

The Britons were in two boats from the frigate H.M.S. Cornwall during a routine smuggling investigation, said the British Defense Ministry.

According to a statement from the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain and operates jointly with the British forces off the coast of Iraq, the British sailors had just finished inspecting the merchant ship "when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters."

Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl of the Fifth Fleet said the British crew members were intercepted by several larger patrol boats operated by Iranian sailors belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, a radical force that operates separately from the country's regular navy.

The Iranian boats normally carry bow-mounted machine guns, while the British boarding party carried only sidearms, Aandahl said. No shots were fired and there appeared to be no physical harm done to any personnel involved or their vessels, Aandahl said.

The seizure of the British vessels, a pair of rigid inflatable boats known as RIBs, took place in long-disputed waters just outside of the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway that divides Iraq from Iran, Aandahl said. A 1975 treaty gave the waters to Iraq and U.S. and British ships commonly operate there, but Aandahl said Iran disputes Iraq's jurisdiction over the waters.

"It's been in dispute for some time," Aandahl said. "We've been operating there for a couple of years and we know the lines very well. This was a compliant boarding, this happens routinely. What's out of the ordinary is the Iranian response."

Aandahl said the U.S.-led task force has touchier relations with the Revolutionary Guard, who often ignores normal maritime operating traditions, than with the regular Iranian navy.

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 Cornwall's commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said the frigate lost communication with the boarding party, but a helicopter crew saw the Iranian vessels approach.

"I've got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians and my immediate concern is their safety," Lambert told British Broadcasting Corp. television.

Lambert said it was a routine boarding, the skipper of the vessel "answered all the questions, and the leader of the boarding party cleared him to continue with his business."

In June 2004, six British marines and two sailors were seized by Iran in the Shatt al-Arab. They were presented blindfolded on Iranian television and admitted entering Iranian waters illegally, then released unharmed after three days.
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The Iranians have threatened to being kidnapping American troops in Iraq. I wonder if this is part of that?

Not good.

K Jay

OK, Im british, I'm not happy about this, but if 15 iranians sailed up the coast of long island what would you expect Dak?

If we're serious about peace we need to engage the iranians no matter how radical there views, if we're not serious about peace just go to war now.

This posturing is pathetic (both iranians threatening to wipe isreal from the map and the USA calling Iran a part of the axis of evile).

Live together or fall apart!!!

I had a sig, once.

Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

If they were in Iranian waters they have every right to detain them.

The first reports were that it was in Iraq waters, if that is the case they have no right whatsoever to detain them.

If a country is supporting terrorists organizations and supplying weapons for those organizations to kill our troops, then them being included in the axis of evil is completely justified.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should go to war with Iran. But there are some people you cannot negotiate with. America supports Israel and no Arab country is going to cooperate with us because of that.

We are just in a stale mate.

K Jay

We are, and we either go all out to break the stale-mate or "we" (USA +UK) need to withdraw. The longer we sit on this situation the weaker we look.

We have to remember the peoples we are occupying are used to shiria law, we look like f***in pussys compared to that.

I had a sig, once.

Inogenius

Bingo. Bickering about one another to 3rd parties isn't going to solve a problem. You need to confront the problem face to face, or eliminate the other person.

The USA already was made to look stupid by Kim Jong-Ill & North Korea, Iran has seen that the USA will fold when necessary, and they also know that the USA can't do anything without it's allies. If the public loses support in the UK (which they already have), the USA loses the support of the UK. By detaining these 15 soldiers, it's one step closer to their goal of having the USA back down from their diplomatic sanctions.

Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

I don't know what the answer in Iraq is.

I would like to see us just leave.

But then I think about what will happen if we do. Iran will pretty much have the run of Iraq when we leave. Not "officially" really but we all know what is going to happen when we leave. The terrorists organizations will start back up and they will eventually start causing trouble again.

My question is will the allies be prepared to handle that situation when it arises?

The people of America and England have shown they are not willing to accept massive loss of life.

I don't really know what the hell is going on any more. The world is screwed up big time.

*Sigh*

Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

I would like to hear some thoughts on the new developments in Iran. Are they letter from the British soldier really from her or was she forced to write them? Is Iran trying to provoke an attack on them by keeping the British troops? Do you think the Allied Forces will attack Iran if they are not released soon?