Navy boats 'ambushed' in Iraqi water

The Telegraph

The 15 British service personnel captured by Iran were "ambushed" 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territorial waters, the MoD has confirmed.

Tony Blair told the House of Commons it was time to "ratchet up" the diplomatic and international pressure on Iran.

At a briefing in London, the MoD said it "unambiguously contested" claims from Teheran that the UK vessel carrying the sailors and Marines had strayed into Iranian waters.

Vice Admiral Charles Style said that the Iranians had given two different positions for the Royal Navy boarding party - the first inside Iraqi territorial waters.

"It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of co-ordinates," he said.

Admiral Style said the boarding party was "ambushed" during the routine after the search of a vessel and that their detention was "unjustified and wrong".

Tony Blair today condemned the "completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal" detention.

"Our thoughts are with our servicemen and the servicewoman and their families and their safe return is our paramount concern.

"Those personnel were patrolling in Iraqi waters under a United Nations mandate. Their boarding and checking of the Indian merchant vessel was routine."

Addressing the House of Commons for Prime Minister's questions, Mr Blair also defended the Navy personnel's "entirely sensible" decision not to fight back against their captors.

To engage with the Iranians would have led to "severe loss of life".

Responding to calls from Mr Cameron to clarify the rules of engagement, he said: "They do allow our forces to take whatever measures necessary in their own self defence.

"However, in my view it was entirely sensible that those on the spot conducted themselves and behaved in the way they did"

Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, cut short a trip to Turkey to address the House of Commons on the growing crisis.

She told the House that all other official business with Iran had been suspended while the current crisis was being resolved.

"I have concluded that we need to focus all our bilateral efforts during this phase to resolution of this issue.

"We will, therefore, be imposing a freeze on all official bilateral business with Iran until this situation is resolved," she said.

Yesterday Mrs Beckett spoke in what were described as "very robust terms" to her Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.

She said many of the UK's international partners had been putting pressure on Iran.

She said that Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari had confirmed the incident took place in Iraqi waters and called for the release of the personnel.

Meanwhile in Iran students staged a mock trial of the detainees where shouts of "death to Britain" were heard.

While the exact whereabouts of the sailors is unclear it is thought they have been taken to Teheran.