"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 ministry
said on March 23. "The British government is demanding the immediate and
safe
return of our people and equipment."
This was the first confrontation between the two adversaries since Iran
captured six British marines and two sailors in the Shatt Al Arab waterway
in 2004. The Britons were released three days later, Middle East Newsline reported.
The ministry said that at 10:30 a.m. on March 23, 15 British naval
personnel in two inflatable patrol boats engaged in "routine boarding
operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters." The ministry
said that at that point the British sailors were captured by Iranian naval
vessels.
Officials said the British Navy boats were based aboard the HMS Cornwall
frigate when
they were confronted by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Since
2003, Britain has been patroling the northern Gulf and Shatt Al Arab, shared
by Iran and Iraq.
Teheran countered that the two British Navy boats had entered Iranian
territorial waters. The Iranian government said the British patrols had
entered Iranian waters several times previously, and that the sailors
confessed to intentionally violating Iranian sovereignty.
Earlier, the British military accused Iran of financing Shi'ite
insurgents in southern Iraq. The military said Iran has been funding and
training attacks on British troops.
Lt. Col. Justin Maciejewski said Shi'ites were receiving $500 per month
from Iran to attack coalition troops in the Basra area. Maciejewski, quoting
Iraqi community leaders, told BBC radio on March 23 that the Shi'ite
insurgents have received advanced weapons from Teheran.
"All the information we are getting from the locals in Basra is that the
vast majority of the violence against us is inspired from outside of Iraq
and the people here very much believe that that is Iran," Maciejewski said.
"There is nothing I have seen that would disprove what they are telling me."