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British Royal Marines captured by Iranian navy

March 23, 2007

Baghdad, Iraq - Fifteen British Royal Marines on patrol in the Persian Gulf were captured Friday morning by the Iranian navy after inspecting an Iranian ship, the British Ministry of Defense reported.

Fifteen British Royal Marines on patrol in the Persian Gulf were captured Friday morning by the Iranian navy after inspecting an Iranian ship, the British Ministry of Defense said.

The Marines were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters" when Iranian forces surrounded them, the ministry said in a statement.

The marines are from the HMS Cornwall, part of Task Force 158. Nick Lambert, commodore of the ship, said his marines were inside Iraqi territorial waters when they were arrested. There was no fighting, and no use of weapons, he told a BBC pool reporter on the ship. "It was entirely peaceful."

"We've been assured from the scant communications that we've had from the Iranians at the tactical level that the 15 people are safely in their hands."

Coalition authorities and "up to the highest levels" of the British government are working to secure the marines' release, he said.

A U.S. military official who monitors the region said the marines stopped an Iranian vessel suspected of smuggling automobiles, and boarded it for an inspection. While the marines were on board, as many as six ships from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy showed up and claimed the British had entered Iranian waters.

A dispute ensued over whether the marines were on Iraqi or Iranian territorial waters, and the 15 were then seized and taken to Iran, along with the two small Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) they had used to get from their ship to the vessel, the U.S. military official said. The official insisted on anonymity because the incident did not involve the U.S. military.

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