Iran seizes 15 Brtiish Sailors & Marines

[The Deported One]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Iranian naval vessels on Friday seized 15 British sailors and marines 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.

 

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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 in Bahrain, 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. An Iranian official at the U.N. mission in New York said he was not aware of the report and could not immediately comment.

 

Iran is in the middle of its New Year holiday when almost all government offices close.

 

The U.S. Navy said the incident occurred just outside a long-disputed waterway called the Shatt al-Arab dividing Iraq and Iran. It came as the U.N. Security Council is debating further sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, and amid 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.

 

Rhetoric between Western nations and Iran has escalated in recent months.

 

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.'"

 

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Bush administration was monitoring the situation.

 

"The British government is demanding the immediate safe return of the people and equipment and we are keeping watch on the situation," Snow said.

 

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 about 10:30 a.m. Friday "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, which 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, who was contacted by telephone by an AP reporter in Basra, 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.

 

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

Edited March 23, 2007 by Oldone

[Damman]

Oh dear !! Whats the odds on invasion before the year is out ?

[Braveheart]

I've always held the belief that Iran was next on the hit list. They are just speeding up the time table a bit with this stupid nonsense.

 

BTW - Moved to the news forum.

[The Deported One]

I've always held the belief that Iran was next on the hit list. They are just speeding up the time table a bit with this stupid nonsense.

 

BTW - Moved to the news forum.

 

Thank you Sir

[Dean]

more problems on the horizon stretching our resourses past the limit...

[Mackem Stu]

Nuke the lot of them. That'll sort it out.

[BassGod]

Nuke the lot of them. That'll sort it out.

 

Brilliant!!! Forget about the ecological disaster that would cause, forget about the fact that Iran has an army of 40,000 suicide bombers, and forget about how that would affect the price of oil. I certainly want to mass murder millions of people, breathe toxic fallout, and pay $10 a gallon for gas. You've really thought that through haven't you.

 

This is the incident they've been waiting for to embolden them to start the war they've wanted for a long time. Forget about nuking them though, how would they get to the oil?

[Rex7777]

I'd give Iran exactly 12 hours to return the sailors, or else! Nuking a few of their cities would go a long way towards stopping the nonsense.

 

Rex

[BassGod]

I'd give Iran exactly 12 hours to return the sailors, or else! Nuking a few of their cities would go a long way towards stopping the nonsense.

 

Rex

 

Brilliant, there are some big brains in here.

[Bangkok1bob]

Question 1 – WTF are British forces doing looking for smuggled cars!!!!!

Question 2 – Why bother having ships such as HMS Cornwall if they can’t even protect a couple of inflatables?

Question 3 – In these days of GPS everyone knows exactly where they are. The British Government are not exactly being categoric in their denials. Is this an orchestrated affair ahead in this weekends UN vote?

 

BTW I trust Blair and his mob as much as the liars in the White House

[BassGod]

Question 1 – WTF are British forces doing looking for smuggled cars!!!!!

Question 2 – Why bother having ships such as HMS Cornwall if they can’t even protect a couple of inflatables?

Question 3 – In these days of GPS everyone knows exactly where they are. The British Government are not exactly being categoric in their denials. Is this an orchestrated affair ahead in this weekends UN vote?

 

BTW I trust Blair and his mob as much as the liars in the White House

 

Thank you, something smells funny here.

[Rex7777]

BassGod,

 

Sooner or later, it's going to end very very badly for millions of Muslims living in places like Iran and Syria. Some people apparently don't see that, though.

 

Rex

[BassGod]

BassGod,

 

Sooner or later, it's going to end very very badly for millions of Muslims living in places like Iran and Syria. Some people apparently don't see that, though.

 

Rex

 

Then you tell me how the people that control the nukes are going to get access to the oil, which is what they are after.

[Mackem Stu]

Question 1

Edited March 24, 2007 by Mackem Stu

[Rex7777]

Nukes? OK, well, maybe they could figure outsome other way to kill all of them. Chemical or biological weapons?

 

All I know is that the Imans in the Mosques are preaching hatred from one end of the Muslim world to the other, and that they want me dead just because I'm an American. Fuck em.

 

Rex

[The Deported One]

I am surprised that the HMS Cornwall did not make a run for the boats or do a show of force to protect her crew! Gee morale must be great on that ship! Just think of the guys doing the boarding now knowing that if anything happens they are on there own! Not a good feeling to have about your command!

[Mackem Stu]

I am surprised that the HMS Cornwall did not make a run for the boats or do a show of force to protect her crew! Gee morale must be great on that ship! Just think of the guys doing the boarding now knowing that if anything happens they are on there own! Not a good feeling to have about your command!

 

How quickly do you think a frigate could cover 4 miles and catch up with high speed gun boats???

 

Type 22 Statistics Displacement: 5300 tonnes

Length: 148.1m / 485.9ft

Beam: 14.8m / 48.5ft

Speed: 30 knots

Complement: 250 (Max 301)

Armament: 114mm (4.5 inch) MK 8 gun Goalkeeper close-in weapons system (CIWS) Sea Wolf anti-missile system 2 x Quad Harpoon missile launchers 2 x 20mm Close range guns NATO Seagnat Decoy Launchers

Sensors: Type 1007 navigation radar Type 967 and 968 surveillance radar 2 x Type 911 Sea Wolf tracking radars UAT Electronic Surveillance System Type 2050 active sonar

Aircraft: Lynx MK 8 helicopters Armament: Sea Skua anti-ships missiles Stingray anti-submarine torpedoes Mk 11 depth charges Machine guns

Edited March 24, 2007 by Mackem Stu

[The Deported One]

How quickly do you think a frigate could cover 4 miles and catch up with high speed gun boats???

 

Type 22 Statistics Displacement: 5300 tonnes

Length: 148.1m / 485.9ft

Beam: 14.8m / 48.5ft

Speed: 30 knots

Complement: 250 (Max 301)

Armament: 114mm (4.5 inch) MK 8 gun Goalkeeper close-in weapons system (CIWS) Sea Wolf anti-missile system 2 x Quad Harpoon missile launchers 2 x 20mm Close range guns NATO Seagnat Decoy Launchers

Sensors: Type 1007 navigation radar Type 967 and 968 surveillance radar 2 x Type 911 Sea Wolf tracking radars UAT Electronic Surveillance System Type 2050 active sonar

Aircraft: Lynx MK 8 helicopters Armament: Sea Skua anti-ships missiles Stingray anti-submarine torpedoes Mk 11 depth charges Machine guns

 

she was insight! according toi news reports she did not make attempt, as stated by her CO on BBC

[Franky]

Nukes? OK, well, maybe they could figure outsome other way to kill all of them. Chemical or biological weapons?

 

All I know is that the Imans in the Mosques are preaching hatred from one end of the Muslim world to the other, and that they want me dead just because I'm an American. Fuck em.

 

Rex

 

 

We need to stop buying their oil, even if it means paying more for home grown fuels in our own countries....Brazil did it,....it won't be easy but we must do it.

 

Why we ever stopped the Iran/Iraq War is beyond me....we should have sold more arms to both sides , and let them kill each other.

 

I don't think trying to occupy a country, even a third world country, works anymore (Vietnam, Korea,Iraq)....it just doesn't work.

 

Let's Iran build its Nuke facilities....then send in the Airforce, and blow it up, everytime its almost finished.

 

If we get out of their countries, I honestly think they will kill each other, they have been doing it for a thousand years.

 

Cut off their food supply, and base the price of wheat to oil.....a bushel of wheat to a barrel of oil....they can't eat their oil, but we can power our cars on grain.

[BassGod]

We need to stop buying their oil, even if it means paying more for home grown fuels in our own countries....Brazil did it,....it won't be easy but we must do it.n.

 

I agree That we need to stop buying foreign fuel but Brazil turned vast tracts of rainforest into sugar plantations, and relocated indigenous peoples off their lands to create enough ethanol for fuel self sufficiency. How do you think that would fly in this country? Do you think we are willing to mow down all the old growth forests in Washington and Oregon to grow corn?

 

 

Nukes? OK, well, maybe they could figure outsome other way to kill all of them. Chemical or biological weapons?

 

All I know is that the Imans in the Mosques are preaching hatred from one end of the Muslim world to the other, and that they want me dead just because I'm an American. Fuck em.

 

Rex

 

That is a small percentage of moslems that preach hatred and destruction but the more we back the Isreali humiliation of the Palestinians and the more unarmed children we blow up the more that percentage grows. Quite honestly radical Christianity has been a far more destructive force in the world than radical Islam.

Edited March 24, 2007 by BassGod

[The Deported One]

I agree That we need to stop buying foreign fuel but Brazil turned vast tracts of rainforest into sugar plantations, and relocated indigenous peoples off their lands to create enough ethanol for fuel self sufficiency. How do you think that would fly in this country? Do you think we are willing to mow down all the old growth forests in Washington and Oregon to grow corn?

That is a small percentage of moslems that preach hatred and destruction but the more we back the Isreali humiliation of the Palestinians and the more unarmed children we blow up the more that percentage grows. Quite honestly radical Christianity has been a far more destructive force in the world than radical Islam.

 

I don’t want to get into politics here but I totally disagree with your last para. I’ve been and seen more than I want to. But they have been fighting for how many years in PI. Radical islam has done a lot!

[BigChief]

NUKE 'EM!

[swanks]

Once you use a force of any kind then you have lost it's advantage.

 

I think a lot of the nonsense by the Muslims in every country could be negated by someone pointing out that n single nuclear bomb on Mecca might not make Alla very happy!

 

Sod the Saudis.

The west should never have let them and there like control the oil vital to modern economy's anyway!

 

Who said we have to play fair and if they do retaliate on Israel then so what?

 

I don't live there ether!

 

Flame away lads!

[The Deported One]

Once you use a force of any kind then you have lost it's advantage.

 

I think a lot of the nonsense by the Muslims in every country could be negated by someone pointing out that n single nuclear bomb on Mecca might not make Alla very happy!

 

Sod the Saudis.

The west should never have let them and there like control the oil vital to modern economy's anyway!

 

Who said we have to play fair and if they do retaliate on Israel then so what?

 

I don't live there ether!

 

Flame away lads!

 

good to see you here Swanks! (Littleone)

[The Deported One]