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Iran acted 'out of the ordinary'
23/03/2007 21:09 - (SA)
Dubai - The 15 British sailors seized on Friday in Iraqi territorial waters were taken by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy, a radical force that operates independently from the regular Iranian Navy, said a US official.
Commander Kevin Aandahl of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain also said no shots were fired during incident and that the British sailors appeared unharmed.
Aandahl said the seizure of the British vessels, a pair of rigid inflatable boats known as RIBs, took place in long-disputed waters just outside of the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway that divides Iraq from Iran.
A 1975 treaty gave the waters to Iraq.
US and British ships commonly operate there, but Aandahl said Iran disputes Iraq's jurisdiction over the waters.
Aandahl said: "It's been in dispute for some time.
"We've been operating there for a couple of years and we know the lines very well.
"This was a compliant boarding, this happens routinely. What's out of the ordinary is the Iranian response."
- AP
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