So reports the BBC: UK reveals Iran dispute evidence
The Royal Navy says satellite data proves 15 personnel being held in Iran were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were seized.Vice Admiral Charles Style said the sailors were “ambushed” after the search of a vessel and that their detention was “unjustified and wrong”.
This hardly comes as a surprise and no doubt the Iranians will claim that the assertions are nothing more than propaganda. There is also the real chance that Iranians made a mistakes in terms of where they thought they were–not that the justifies the seizures of British military personnel.
The piece has a map showing the locations of the various actors and Iraqi territorial waters.
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March 28th, 2007 at 10:30 am
[...] Hat tip: Steven Taylor [...]
March 28th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Hi Steven,
Funny thing - the pics my beloved homeland’s government released as evidence shoe a handheld GPS unit, supposedly taken from a copter hovering exactly over the scene of the seizure.
Trouble is, the figures on the handheld are off from the location the UK govt. has given by about 20 seconds in each axis.
Now I admit that isn’t much…about 100 yards. But it shows the likelyhood that anyone can prove anything for sure in the region.
Regards, C
March 28th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
According to the report I saw on MSNC and my memory, Iran claims the waters in question, though no one agrees with tehran. Nevertheless, Tehran claimed the incident took place in two different locations, the first inside Iraqi waters and later changing to the second, just outside.