Friday, March 23, 2007
The Marines were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
A U.S. military official who monitors the region told CNN the Marines stopped an Iranian ship suspected of smuggling automobiles, and boarded it for an inspection.
The British ministry's statement said the Marines "completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters."
The statement added, "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office. The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."
There was no immediate word from Tehran on the incident...
Apparently, the British Navy is now being run by French Admirals......
I don't know that the previous comment was fair. There's no point in going balls to the wall right out of the gate. This has happened to the Brits before and they stayed calm and got their guys back in three days.
I'm more interested in the thought that the Iranians may be demanding some Iranian prisoners in MNF or Iraqi custody.
No, they're only demanding UK forces out of Irag...
As if we're going to fall for the "2nd letter" - blatant crude propaganda...
Bigger things at work... and Iran has done this cynically with great calculation to test our (British) resolve...
and as a way to split the allies... and divide and conquer!