Iranian forces seize 15 Britons at gunpoint

? Naval forces of Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guards captured 15 British sailors and marines at gunpoint Friday in the Persian Gulf – an audacious move coming during heightened tensions between the West and Iran.

U.S. and British officials said a boarding party from the frigate HMS Cornwall was seized about 10:30 a.m. during a routine inspection of a merchant ship inside Iraqi territorial waters near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry insisted the Britons were operating in Iranian waters and would be held “for further investigation,” Iranian state television said.

A U.S. Navy official in Bahrain, Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl, said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard naval forces were responsible and had broadcast a brief radio message saying the British party was not harmed.

In London, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office, and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said he “was left in no doubt that we want them back.”

Iranian TV quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry official as saying the top British diplomat in Tehran had been called in to receive Tehran’s protest of the “illegal entry” into Iranian waters.

“This is not the first time that British military personnel during the occupation of Iraq have entered illegally into Iran’s territorial waters,” the unidentified official was quoted as saying.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said the Royal Navy personnel were “engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters” and had completed a ship inspection when they were accosted by Iranian vessels.

The eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines were part of a task force that protects Iraqi oil terminals and maintains security in Iraqi waters under authority of the U.N. Security Council.

The Cornwall’s commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said the frigate lost communication with the boarding party, but a helicopter crew saw Iranian naval vessels approach.

“I’ve got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians and my immediate concern is their safety,” he told British Broadcasting Corp. television.

Lambert said he hoped it was a “simple mistake” stemming from the long dispute between Iraq and Iran over demarcating their territorial waters just off the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway that divides the two countries.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Bush administration was monitoring events. “The British government is demanding the immediate safe return of the people and equipment and we are keeping watch on the situation,” Snow said.