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Britain Demands Iran Free Seized Sailors
AP ^ | Friday, Mar. 23, 2007

Posted on 03/23/2007 4:43:49 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

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.

Iran's Foreign Ministry insisted the Britons were operating in Iranian waters and would be held "for further investigation," Iranian state television said.

A U.S. Navy official in Bahrain, Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl, said Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces were responsible and had broadcast a brief radio message saying the British party was not harmed.

In London, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office, and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said he "was left in no doubt that we want them back."

Iranian TV quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry official as saying the top British diplomat in Tehran had been called in to receive Tehran's protest of the "illegal entry" into Iranian waters.

"This is not the first time that British military personnel during the occupation of Iraq have entered illegally into Iran's territorial waters," the unidentified official was quoted as saying.

Britain's Defense Ministry said the Royal 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.

The eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines were part of a task force that protects Iraqi oil terminals and maintains security in Iraqi waters under authority of the U.N. Security Council. .

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: geoepolitics; iran; iraq; uk
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To: Grimmy

The UK did not go out of their way to avoid confrontation with insurgents. That is utter nonsense. For a small force in Iraq we have done the best that we could. Have a look at the many dozens of gallantry medals given to British troops in Iraq. The south of Iraq is in a better state than most US zones. Perhaps you should sort out your own sectors before you comment on ours! Our casualties are proportional to yours in Iraq. The 'softly, softly bullcrap' is now Gen. Petraeus strategy in the Baghdad surge-and its working. Its a basic tenet of successful counterinsurgency if you care to read your history books.

The UK could easily have stood by and let the US do all the hard work in the WOT like all of your other 'allies'. They have not. We have suffered the second highest casualties in the WOT after the US. As for the rest of the 'Anglosphere', the Canadaians are doing sterling work in Afghanistan but aren't present in Iraq. The Australian government has sent token forces to Iraq and Afghanistan that haven't been involved in much fighting and (thankfully) haven't sufferent a single combat death. I have nothing but respect for the militaries of those two countries, however.


61 posted on 03/26/2007 3:48:56 AM PDT by uksupport1
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To: napscoordinator

Thank you for the details.


62 posted on 03/26/2007 6:22:58 AM PDT by windcliff
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To: uksupport1

Sorry to say but you are wrong in your assessment of your forces primary strategy in the Basra area.

Basra was allowed to fall completely to Iranian backed militias. The only time UK forces engaged was in self defense when directly attacked.

UK forces have stood and watched as Iraqi citizens were beaten, sometimes to death, by Islamist code enforcers. The UK command went to extreme measures to avoid contact with the militias at all costs.

I doubt this was due to the will of your soldiers and commanders but it is what it is and now Americans will have to bleed to fix it.


63 posted on 03/26/2007 4:07:48 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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