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Iran denies allegations
24/03/2003 14:25 - (SA)
Tehran - An Iranian official on Monday strongly denied charges by British commandos that coalition troops in southern Iraq had come under fire from Iranian forces across the border.
"We consider this allegation as baseless," the official said.
British Royal Marine commandos on the Fao peninsula said on Sunday that both they and low-flying US aircraft had come under sporadic fire from Iranian anti-aircraft batteries and fixed machine-gun posts.
The 40 Commando marines were in the town of Fao on the far south of the peninsula, just a few hundred metres from the Shatt al-Arab waterway that marks the border.
A Royal Marines spokesperson said: "We are content that the fire from Iran was inaccurate and ineffective, but none the less puzzling."
The first of several volleys, witnessed by a reporter from London's Daily Mirror, was directed at a US A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack jet that swooped low over the Iraqi town to "buzz" a gun position.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi-Lari warned on Sunday that the Iranian army would "react" if there were further violations of its airspace by US and British warplanes.
"Our soldiers on the border are on full alert... If they observe the slightest violation of Iranian airspace or at the border they will certainly react," he threatened.
Tehran, officially neutral in the US-led war to depose Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, has condemned what it says have been repeated violations of its airspace by coalition planes.
Iran has had no diplomatic relations with Washington since after the 1979 Islamic revolution, and looks nervously at the presence of the US military in neighbouring Iraq to the west and Afghanistan to the east. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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