Iran captured fifteen British Royal Navy personnel during a “routine boarding operation” in Iraqi waters on Friday, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said.
Iran’s ambassador in London has been summoned and Britain is demanding the immediate safe release of the sailors.
“At approximately 1030 Iraqi time this morning, 15 British naval personnel, engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters … were seized by Iranian naval vessels,” the ministry said in a statement.
“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.”
It’s not the first time.
The western world either stands behind Britain 100% or there will be more and more of this until a major war breaks out.
No time for cheese eating surrender monkeys and left wing useful idiots. This is serious.
Time for a visit from the Special Air Service.
It looks like the “Big Cats” are out to catch a handful of “mice” who are really men.
Hearts out to the personnel who were only doing their duty.
This is obviously, a provocative move by the Iranians in the lead up to the UN Security Council possible sanctions vote and Dr. Ahmahdinejad’s forthcoming address to the UN.
It would appear that one of the “Big Cats” has pounced on a few “mice”. It would appear doubtful that this provocative move will be helpful to the Iranian cause.
Will the Big Cat lose his mice to the British Lions?
It will be interesting to see the address to the UN and the forthcoming responses.
It it always the little guys who get caught up in a grander game not of their own making.
How the interdiction team, searching for materiel going to Iraq is threatening Iran, is somewhat obtuse and a bit of a disconnect. One wonders whether the Iranian commanders knew of the provocation potential this has?
One would think that the the Iranians wouldn’t be pulling a provocative move like this in the runup to a UN Security Council address. It doesn’t make sense. Maybe one of the local officers ‘jumped the gun’.
I hope this doesn’t turn into a fur ball.
Its probably a fubar moment Hans. The Iranian’s GPS pooped out on them, or some guy was feeling cranky that day.
Still time for the Special Air Service. The Iranian gubmint needs a smacking, and a nice precise raid would be the very thing.
It isn’t like they’ll get REALLY mad and do something terrible, is it? They’re already doing that.
Iran has a navy? One capable of capturing British sailors?
Wonders never cease.
What was Iran doing in Iraqi waters? What right do they have to board a UN sanctioned mission operating in Iraqi waters?
It’s probably a bribery attempt – lower the sanctions against us or else.
But again, what was Iran doing in Iraqi waters? Doesn’t this move them into the legal status of piracy?
Further;
Just exactly what was being transported from Iran to Iraq aboard the ship the Brits boarded? Was it a cargo of something so bad they decided it was worth an international incident to avoid discovery?
Look at the latest CTV poll on the subject. Interesting results.
Two Israeli soldiers get kidnapped and a war begins. Fifteen British sailors get kidnapped and….. Iran’s military in Iraqi waters. Is this yet more evidence that Iran is continuing it’s war with Iraq? What are the Iraqi’s going to say about this act of war?
Isn’t this a textbook case of an act of war? Sailing into another nation’s territorial waters to kidnap military personnel performing their legally assigned duties?
Iran’s bought themselves a few bombing run’s worth of pain for this, if the UK’s still got the fortitude to dish it out.
Seems to me Iran is asking for something too happen, let’s hope the pathetic left wing doesn’t back down, but alas we should know better than that!
“Iran has a navy? One capable of capturing British sailors?”
Yes, Iran has a capable navy, including submarines with sub launched cruise missile (SLCM) capability that can kill a ship from 150 miles. This ties into an earlier thread of mine, why new helicopters for navy are useless. EH-101 has 1.6 times ranges of Sikorsky they selected, which cannot search out 150 miles for sub, basically can go out look for about 15 minutes and have to return to ship. EH-101 can search for 1.5 hours, which were the specs navy gave to Chretien government, which they called “cadillac.” If Iran gets nasty our ships are in danger in Gulf, thanks to Chretien government and their politicking.
shamrock, say it is not true….scumbag libranos selling our military short and putting service person’s lives at risk….in Canada? s$%^head libranos cashing in the “peace dividend” which only wound up being a “death dividend” for members of our military…I fear we will be paying for corrupt librano garbage for a long time to come…..GO ARMY!
“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.”
It’s always nice to have someone to summon.
We better make it clear to Iran that by doing this, they are playing Russian Roulette with a colt M1911. This should be considered an act of war.
What are we waiting for? Press the damn button, dammit!
I already commented at the newspaper. A squadron of Tornados over “I’m a dinner Jackets” palace in Tehran or whereever will sort this out.
From CTV Poll:
What would be an appropriate response to Iran’s seizing of U.K. Royal Navy soldiers?
Bring issue to UN Security Council 756 votes (21 %)
Military action 1681 votes (47 %)
Negotiations 814 votes (23 %)
Sanctions 299 votes (8 %)
Seems like a lot of Canadians aren’t nearly as forgiving/obsequious as some would have us think.
My question is why don’t these servicemen have orders to shoot to kill to avoid capture if they are not violating Iranian waters?
Shamrock : yes we did get screwed on the helo scandal. But as usual, the military continued/continues to get the job done. Besides, US Swath ships and ‘tail’ destroyers and frigates are the best bet for finding a submerged contact. Helos are usually only used to localize a target besides a miriad of other duties.
Shaken : There is ever present the inherent right to self defence, but reality has to sink in. The boarding party at most would be carrying assault rifles; to be sure it was stated in the news that they were only carrying sidearms as this was a compliant boarding. So 9mm against .50 cal HMGs hmmmmm.
It seems the reason the incident may have ocurred is due to the dispute between Iran and Iraq over the territorial waters from a traty executed in 1975. (Source CBC http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/03/23/britain-iran.html)
“Helos are usually only used to localize a target besides a miriad of other duties.”
Yes, my navy friends assure me all is OK; and you and they are right, but in a hot sea, an on station frigate could get wacked. I know our military is great, in fact I think they are the finest organization in the world. They will always minimize their threat; but, sometimes, in war, this is not always possible. The proper helicopter, BTW with superior all-weather and cargo capacity, the one they should have bought, would obviate that threat. We ended up paying just as much for the Sikorsky Skycrate.
I know I’m harping; even as military procurement cock-ups go, this is the king. It’s an example of the damage the Liberals are capable of, and the Canadian people should know about it.
‘Rock – I agree wholeheartedly. The EH 101s were the best we could’ve gotten. And yes, the tax payer ended up paying more in the end for less capability. To me that’s the irony of the whole situation. As we normally do, Canadians complain about everything. it’s too hot here, it’s too cold there, too many mosquitoes here too much urban sprawl there. We must not forget that the Chretien liberals were elected on the promise to ‘dispose’ of the Conservative led purchase of said 101s. The bloody CPF’s hangers were redesigned IOT accommodate the 101s. Alas, we still have the “30 million parts moving in formation” Seakings. Each year that goes by, sans Liberal, gets better and better for the military. We are not the US. We cannot support multiple deployed operations for sustained peiods of time. But we go where we’re told and do what we’re told without question. Much like the British sailors who were kidnapped. IMHO, the end of the cold war saw the end of the ‘peace-keeper’ as we knew it. It seems that we are all playing with a new rule book that has yet to be printed.
Yowzer, sorry. didn’t mean to go soo off topic. I could go on for hours about that stuff. As always, we continue to do more with less, God save the Queen.
…people tend to forget, negotiations is paramount in this case. No one wants a war, not even Iran.
Probably as one poster said, it was a territorial thing.
How soon we forget about the US propjob that got grounded and literally taken apart when it flew too close to China, and a pilot killed.
If anything, that was enough to provoke a war.
US, is castrated within by peaceniks, Canada is castrated with the Liberals.
All we can do now is negotiate.
Nice to do some chest thumping, but reality is, we’re still a 3rd world military equipment wise, well maybe 4th, some are better equipped than us.
I think Iran may have trying to provoke a response. I also understand detainees to be/have been returned; and info on that?
There’s a report that the Revolutionary Guard was reponsible, not the Iranian Navy.
http://p216.ezboard.com/fwarships1discussionboardsfrm3.showMessage?topicID=5748.topic&index=21
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Breaking news…
“Iran’s president will miss a meeting of the
UN Security Council in New York on Saturday
because the US delayed issuing visas, Iranian
officials say.”
Visas my a$$… Ahmadinejad just blinked.
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Don’t be so gullible Kate:
British Forces Held By Iran
Updated: 20:40, Friday March 23, 2007
Iran says it took 15 British servicemen hostage at gunpoint because they had crossed into Iranian waters.
The eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Marines were seized by Iranian troops while carrying out a routine inspection in what the British say were Iraqi waters.
According to reports on Iran state television, a British envoy was summoned to the foreign ministry in Tehran.
An unnamed foreign ministry official was quoted as saying the 15 had been “detained by Iran’s border authorities for further investigation… of the blatant aggression into Iranian territorial waters”.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1257281,00.html
“It’s not the first time”
The last time they got popped they were in Iranian territory too. From the link:
EHRAN (AFP) Jun 22, 2004
Iran’s defence minister said Tuesday a crisis over the arrest of eight British troops was “solvable” and that the Islamic republic should not adopt a hostile attitude, the ISNA news agency reported.
“The issue of the British boats is solvable,” Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani told the student news agency.
“Those wrongdoers who do not have a hostile attitude should be dealt with in a way that corresponds with Iranian dignity.”
Iran on Tuesday turned down British appeals for the team of Royal Marines and sailors to be freed immediately, saying it had to establish first why they had crossed into Iranian territorial waters on the southern border with Iraq.
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040622145509.wpuvi6wo.html
You warmongers need to get your stories straight 😉
Bob:
Who is actively asking for more war?
Just because the Brits strayed once, doesn’t mean they have done so again. In fact the Brits are suggesting such is not the case this time.
After the first incident, orders would have been made explicitly clear in regard to Iranian territorial waters.
Why would the Brits go out of their way to provoke a response? That would seem counter productive to their efforts to quell the violence in Iraq.
In short, why would one look for a second fight when the first one isn’t finished?
TEHRAN, March 23 (Xinhua) — Iranian foreign ministry confirmed on Friday that its country had seized some British marines earlier in the day when they entered its territorial waters illegally, the state television reported.
“This is not the first time for British military personnel to enter the Iranian waters illegally since they occupied Iraq,” Ibrahim Rahimpour, director general for Western European affairs of the foreign ministry was quoted as saying.
“The Iranian border authorities have detained 15 British soldiers and marines for further investigation of blatant aggression into Iran’s water,” he added.
Meanwhile, the official disclosed that Tehran had summoned the top British envoy and demanded the London administration to explain it as soon as possible.
“We have summoned British charged’ affaires Kate Smith to the foreign ministry to receive the firm protest for the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters,” said Rahimpour, adding the British government should ensure “not to do this again” in the future.
…
In June 2004, the Iranian forces detained eight British sailors for the same reason at the same area. The military personnels were paraded blindfold on television and forced to apologize for their “mistake.” The Iranian authority released them after three days in custody.
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/24/content_5888872.htm
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“TEHRAN, March 23 (Xinhua)…
yep, bob… just keep cuttin’ and pastin’ because
you’re too inarticulate to say anything yourself.
btw, that wouldn’t be the same china that sells
iran those silkworm missiles, that get smuggled
into lebanon, to be fired at israeli navy ships?
or the same energy hungry china, that’s sucking up
to any despotic middle eastern theocracy that can
sell it oil?
nah.
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well bob, i don’t know why i’m getting into a cut’n paste war with some dim bulb who would defend the murderous, despotic mullahs in iran, but for your edification…
Vali Nasr, a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, suggested that Iran may be retaliating for the arrest of five Iranians in a U.S.-led raid in northern Iraq in January. The U.S. said the five included a Revolutionary Guards general.
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.
_______________________
and previous to that…
Now a second sanctions resolution is set to be passed today that bars Iran from exporting arms, restricts loans to Tehran and freezes the assets of 28 Iranian individuals and companies involved in nuclear or missile work.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, gave warning this week that Tehran regarded the move as illegal and would respond by carrying out its own “illegal actions”.
*
Reuters is the only news outlet reporting this as taking place in Iraq:
Iran accuses Britain over sailors
Fifteen British navy personnel captured at gunpoint by Iranian forces had sailed into Iran’s waters illegally, its government has insisted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6489493.stm
State-run Iranian TV reports 15 British marines and sailors seized off the coast were arrested after crossing illegally into Iran’s waters. The British government immediately demanded their safe return and summoned Tehran’s London ambassador to explain the incident. Meanwhile, Iranian TV reported Britain’s ambassador in Tehran was being asked to explain why the personnel crossed into Iranian territory.
http://www.cnn.com/
Iran’s President cancels U.N. visit.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_NUCLEAR?SITE=NYELM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Bob, Iran is saying Brits in their waters. It isn’t established at all. In fact Brits deny this. Who has more credibility here. I guess it’s Iran, as long as you believe their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Bob, even assuming the British had strayed into Iranian waters (which is questionable in itself), the proper remedy for an unintentional violation like that would have been to simply warn it off, and then if necessary arrest the ship under escort to port, but NOT to board her and disarm and detain her crew. That is a provocation, an escalation and yes, as stated above, an act of war: even in another country’s territory, a warship unlike a merchant vessel remains sovereign and inviolate. But then, you’re dealing with a government that was FOUNDED on a comparable disregard for international law, namely the armed takeover of another country’s embassy.
Why even bother discussing this with Baghdad Bob? Someone who’s instantly willing to put more credibility on Iran’s side of the story than Great Britain’s is one of Lenin’s “useful idiots” – simply not worth it.
Me thinks that Iran wants a war and SOON!! The political power of the Mullahs is on the down slide, they’ve “jumped the shark” and need something to divert the peoples attention.
The people would probably figure out that the Mullahs are as bad as the liberals.
There is something peculiar about this story: normally during a boarding operation the combatant ship is close by in order to provide protection for their boarders. Where was the British frigate? A British helicopter witnessed the capture of the boarding party. It’s hard to imagine the British giving up their boarding party without putting up a fight.
There is something peculiar about this story: normally during a boarding operation the combatant ship is close by in order to provide protection for their boarders. Where was the British frigate? A British helicopter witnessed the capture of the boarding party. It’s hard to imagine the British giving up their boarding party without putting up a fight.
“US, is castrated within by peaceniks,”
There’s also the fact that they’re dependant on China to finance the Iraq War. China doesn’t want the US to go to war and since they’re holding the purse strings they’ve got all the leverage.
If Bush wanted to go to war with Iran the antiwar movement and Democratic party couldn’t stop him.
Could British government seize all Iranian assets in GB, as retaliation?
Iberia, I agree this sounds weird with Brit frigate nearby; however, funny things happen on high seas.
What happened to the British navy, an admiral of which said, while his fleet was taking a pounding by German aircraft attempting to stop the evacuation of British soldiers from Crete, in response to an order to withdraw in order to avoid more damage to his ships, and leave the soldiers to their fate, “Sir, I cannot withdraw, it takes 3 years to build a ship of war, it takes 300 years to build a tradition, we will evacuate the soldiers come what may”.
Let’s see, refusing a direct order in wartime, mmm isn’t that punishable by firing squad?
So what happened to the Royal Navy, any other time not only would they have viewed kidnapping of their sailors as an act of war, they would have unilaterally started the war by bombing the crap out of the kidnappers, and they wouldn’t have asked for permission.
This is one of the reasons why the West is in such trouble. Brazen acts of war are allowed with no response.
I wish we had a President like Jefferson now, when the Barbary states kidnapped Americans and their allies Jefferson went to war with them. His instructions to the US Navy, “bring our citizens (the hostages) back alive or the Bashaw (ruler of the barbary state that did the kidnapping) dead”.
Whatever Iranian forces were involved in this ‘incident’ should have been blasted out of the water.
Curiuous, “Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead” was actually a different great American president, namely Teddy Roosevelt (opposite Sean Connery as a Berber chieftain in The Wind and The Lion, but I digress). The point, however, is certainly the same.