U.S. soldiers taken captive by Iranians

Associated Press ^ | Posted 6/2/2003 9:00 PM | AP

[SunStar]

WASHINGTON (AP)

[m1-lightning]

I'm curious if these were Iranian soldiers or civilians. I understand their military is pretty fair like ours. It's their government and their civilians that are whacko.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Their civilians are no more whacko than ours.

[demlosers]

We should go in force when traveling on Shatt al Arab waterway.

[TexasRepublic]

There should be hell to pay for this.

[m1-lightning]

Their civilians are no more whacko than ours.

Okay, to be more specific, "militant" civilians

[TheBattman]

Exactly how many times is this story going to be posted?

[John123]

I'm curious if these were Iranian soldiers or civilians. I understand their military is pretty fair like ours. It's their government and their civilians that are whacko.

Would you say Iran is like Turkey?

[m1-lightning]

Would you say Iran is like Turkey?

No.

I do know that if these Iranians involved in this story were military, then they were just doing their job and this story is misleading one to think Iran is provoking us. It would be much similar to our Coast Guard. I've met members of the Iranian Navy and they're very friendly to Americans as are the Germans, despite both nations having leaders that hate us. If these Iranians in this story were militants, then the story has a whole new meaning.

[SunStar]

Exactly how many times is this story going to be posted?

I searched for the headline prior to posting and came up with nothing.

[Beck_isright]

I guess it's time to R&R. Reload and Re-Deploy. The countdown clock is now under 7 months. Will we end the tyranny in Iran to save the world or not before the countdown clock hits "zero"????????

[Centurion2000]

Persian Tonkin Gulf incident ??

[Ready4Freddy]

A little background:

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

Shatt al Arab

(shät äl ä´räb) (KEY) , tidal river, 120 mi (193 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, flowing SE to the Persian Gulf, forming part of the Iraq-Iran border; the Karun is its chief tributary. The Shatt al Arab flowed through a broad, swampy delta, but the marshland in Iraq was drained in the early 1990s in order to increase government control over the Arab Shiites who lived there. The river supplies fresh water to S Iraq and Kuwait and is navigable for oceangoing vessels as far as Basra, Iraq’s chief port. 1

Iraq and Iran have disputed navigation rights on the Shatt al Arab since 1935, when an international commission gave Iraq total control of the Shatt al Arab, leaving Iran with control only of the approaches to Abadan and Khorramshahr, its chief ports, and unable to develop new port facilities in the delta. To preclude Iraqi political pressure and interference with its oil and freight shipments on the Shatt al Arab, Iran built ports on the Persian Gulf to handle foreign trade. Iran and Iraq negotiated territorial agreements over the Shatt al Arab waterway in 1975, but by the end of the decade skirmishes in the area became prevalent. Full-scale war between the two countries broke out in Sept., 1980, leading to eight years of attacks on coastal areas (see Iran-Iraq War). The Shatt al Arab remains a source of conflict, as limited water access and unresolved maritime boundaries in the region persist.

[John123]

I understand your reply about the Iranians. But I thought the Turkish military actually wanted us to cross the country to enter the Iraqi border preceding Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was the political and civilian resistance that created the ugly situation...

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

This is not breaking news. They were released yesterday

Iran releases four U.S. soldiers held since Sunday