Iran to release British troops
2004-06-23 10:27
Tehran - A top Iranian army official confirmed on Wednesday that the Islamic republic has ordered the release of an eight-man British Royal Navy unit held on the border with Iraq, the student news agency ISNA reported.
Ali Reza Afshar, a member of the general staff of Iran's armed forces, told ISNA that "the order to release the boats and the crew" had been issued by the army late on Tuesday.
The decision was taken in light of the British troops' insistence that their infringement of Iran's territorial waters along the Shatt al-Arab waterway along the southernmost part of the Iran-Iraq border had been accidental, he said.
- AFP