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Posted on 06/21/2004 7:24:52 AM PDT by kattracks
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — The Royal Navy acknowledged Monday that it had lost contact with three small patrol boats after they went on a routine mission in the waterway between Iraq and Iran, a British military spokesman said.The statement came shortly after state television in Iran said that Tehran had confiscated the three British military vessels and arrested eight armed crew members. British officials did not confirm the boats were captured or the crewmembers detained.
"I can confirm that three small Royal Navy patrol boats and eight crew have been out of communication since the early hours of this morning," said a military spokesman in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on condition of anonymity. "It is not unusual for the Royal Navy to be patrolling the Shatt-al-Arab."
The Royal Navy has been training Iraqi personnel in coastal defense for several weeks on the waterway, and it is possible that the vessels were part of that exercise.
Whoa! This could ramp things up quite a bit. What is their game?
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
Strayed into Iranian waters? Or did the Iranians come out and grab them? All without a trace of communication?
Thats the bad news; the good news is that Israel just took delivery of air refueling tankers. Now they can easily fly to Iran and back, if need be.
I'm willing to bet the Brits have a nuke sub somewhere close by...
"Whoa! This could ramp things up quite a bit. What is their game?"
Hostages?
I tend to believe the Iranians just came out and grabbed them, from Iraqi waters. That's just a personal opinion, though, but they tried the same thing during the first gulf war but all it ended up with was a boatload of dead iranians (can't get into details however. That little "classified" thingie...).
They have a history of this type of behaviour.
I say US and the UK call this a Hijacking, hostage taking, and act of war. And then launch all that is needed to turn Iran into a glass parking lot.
"ramp things up quite a bit"
Hmmmm? I'd say this was a very very stupid move by Iran.
If you attack the UK in a war zone .. isn't it logical to assume the USA would join with the UK in getting the boats back ..??
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Monday it had confiscated three British naval vessels and arrested eight armed crew members. The Royal Navy acknowledged it had lost contact with three small patrol boats on a routine mission in the waterway between Iraq and Iran.
British officials did not confirm the boats were captured or the crewmembers detained.
"I can confirm that three small Royal Navy patrol boats and eight crew have been out of communication since the early hours of this morning," said a British military spokesman in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on condition of anonymity. "It is not unusual for the Royal Navy to be patrolling the Shatt-al-Arab" waterway.
Iranian-British relations have been strained in recent days, since London helped draft a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors meeting last week in Vienna that rebuked Iran for past cover-ups involving its development of nuclear technology.
Iran says its program is aimed only at producing energy, while the United States accuses Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran accused Britain of caving in to U.S. pressure on the resolution.
The three British vessels entered Iranian territorial waters not far from the Iran-Iraq border, the Arabic language Al-Alam television reported.
Iranian forces "confiscated" the vessels and eight military personnel who were on board, the report said.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi confirmed the report, according to Iran's main Persian language TV channel.
"Interrogation of those detained will continue until the matter is clarified," Asefi was quoted as saying.
The Royal Navy said it had lost contact with three small patrol boats early Monday.
"I can confirm that three small Royal Navy patrol boats and eight crew have been out of communication since the early hours of this morning," said a British military spokesman in Basra, Iraq, said on condition of anonymity. "It is not unusual for the Royal Navy to be patrolling the Shatt-al-Arab."
A Defense Ministry spokesman described the vessels as "river boat craft with outboard motors," used for training patrols.
The Iranian TV report said crew members were carrying maps and weapons. It also said the vessels were confiscated about 11 a.m. between the Bahmanshir and Arvand rivers, which would put them in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway east of the Iraqi city of Faw.
The ministry said there were no British warships operating in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway but some smaller vessels were there.
The Foreign Office said British diplomats in Tehran had been in contact with the Iranian government but it was still unclear what had happened.
The Royal Navy has been training Iraqi personnel in coastal defense for several weeks on the waterway, and it is possible that the vessels were part of that exercise.
BTW, Iran needs to be dealt with...
I'm just amazed at Iran.
In Iranian waters or not? Iran needs to return the sailors and the boats in either case--or face war.
Many wars have begun with far less provocation.
Iranian TV saying that they confiscated maps and weapons.
Kinda hard to figure out where the borders are at sea in small patrol boats.
If they had GPS and I'm sure they do, the Brits knew exactly where they were.
Spec Ops.The question is whether the Brits were going on a radiation detection mission, or if they were going to arm the anti-Mullah Iranian students.
3 boats is a little large of a group for a recon mission, though...so the odds are that they were going for something a bit more valuable than mere intel.
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