Iranian navy seizes 15 British sailors at gunpoint

Manama: Britain demanded the immediate return of 15 British naval personnel seized at gunpoint yesterday by Iranian navy, the Bahrain-based US Navy said.

Iranian forces captured the servicemen in the mouth of the waterway that separates Iran and Iraq, triggering a crisis at a time of heightened tensions over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The Britons were seized as they were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi waters," the US Navy said in a statement sent to Gulf News.

Encircled by gunboats

The British Defence Ministry said separately that two boatloads of sailors and marines from the naval frigate Cornwall had finished searching a merchant vessel in Iraqi waters on a UN-approved mission when Iranian gunboats encircled and captured them.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett was quoted as saying she was "extremely disturbed". Britain summoned Iran's ambassador in London and protested through its embassy in Tehran. "We sought a full explanation of what happened ... we expect immediate and safe return of our service personnel," Beckett told Reuters.

A US Navy spokesman said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had radioed a British warship explaining that no harm had come to the servicemen and that they were seized because they were in Iranian waters. However, the British Defence Ministry said the Iranians took custody of the personnel in Iraqi waters.