Marines 'confess' to Iranian captors

The white Toyota Corollas on the ship gleamed in the bright sunshine as the Royal Marines sped across the Persian Gulf in their fast inflatable boats.

The two navy crews had spotted the merchant vessel on the horizon as it brazenly offloaded its cargo of vehicles on to an old barge which would most likely slip up the Shatt al Arab waterway to the Iraqi city of Basra as part of the booming smuggling racket.

As they drew up alongside to investigate further, the barge turned tail and set off towards Iranian waters with the Marines and sailors in pursuit.

It started out as a routine UN-authorised navy inspection of a suspected smuggling operation. What followed has now become an international hostage crisis being mediated at the highest levels by Britain and Iran against a backdrop of nuclear brinkmanship.

The eight British sailors and seven Marines - including a young mother - who were seized by Iranian gunboats on Friday were yesterday reported by Iran to have "confessed" to straying into Iranian waters off the disputed waterway which separates Iran and Iraq.

The timing of the stand-off could not be worse as the sailors' fate risks getting caught up in the showdown over Iran's refusal to curb its suspected nuclear weapons programme.

The 15 members of the UN Security Council, were set to vote unanimously last night on a resolution ordering the expansion of sanctions on Iran to force Tehran to halt sensitive activities that could lead to production of a nuclear bomb. The session took place without President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who sent a deputy foreign minister to address the council after accusing the Americans of delays in issuing visas.

The hostage-taking looks increasingly like a deliberate act by Iran's Revolutionary Guards who have now reportedly transferred their hostages to Tehran. There are suspicions that the seizure was ordered in retaliation for the kidnapping of Iranians by US forces in Iraq.

The kidnapping stemmed from Thursday's events, when the barge tried to evade the sailors who decided to take a more forceful approach. They leapt on to the craft as it sped towards the buffer zone that separates Iraq and Iran's territorial waters. As the Royal Navy crew jumped aboard, the car traders tried to hide a box before tossing it over the side. The Marines half raised their SA80 rifles and ordered the barge to turn back. Ominously, they could see an Iranian Revolutionary Guard boat circling nearby.

The suspected smugglers complied with the British orders and the crew returned to its rigid hull inflatable boats (rhibs) to continue its patrol, only to turn around and see the traders laughing in its direction.

Later that night, I joined them as they set off on their next patrol from HMS Cornwall - part of a "hearts and minds" offensive started by the British when they took over control of the task force three weeks ago. In the darkness the two rhibs were dwarfed by the giant, rusty hulk of the nearby Khawr Al Amaya oil platform. Minutes later they reached their destination, a row of dilapidated-looking Iraqi dhows populated with fishermen who make a living playing cat and mouse with the mammoth military operation which protects Iraq's vital oil assets.

Buoyed by the friendliness of the fishermen, the Royal Navy team was in high spirits. But exhausted after a 17-hour day, they were still irked at the laughter of the smugglers earlier that morning and decided, in consultation with senior officers, that the matter merited further investigation. The following day the 15 Marines and sailors set off from HMS Cornwall again.

The water was as calm, the weather as fine as it had been the previous day as they headed out to the Al Faw peninsula where the Shatt al Arab waterway opens into the sea and the ever-shifting boundary between Iran and Iraq.

Above them Lieutenant Commander Phil Richardson and his crew were providing cover in a Lynx Mk 8 helicopter as they once again spotted the same ship offloading as many as 50 cars on to three barges. This time the larger vessel was compliant as the British crew mounted ladders. Confident the ship was being co-operative and that there was no other sign of trouble from across the border, the helicopter disappeared to continue its reconnaissance of the area.

But minutes later, half a dozen large Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy fast-attack speedboats mounted with machine guns suddenly appeared and ambushed the British sailors as they returned to their two small rhibs. Soon as many as 15 to 20 boats encircled the trapped team.

Frequently the odd IRGCN patrol boat has been spotted dipping across the often disputed water border but polite, firm negotiations has always seen them depart. They have, according to Commodore Nick Lambert, the head of the coalition task force in the area, maintained "a healthy professional respect".

This time, however, he insisted, the Iranians were clearly half a mile into Iraqi waters around Marakkat Abd Allah and in vast numbers. Suddenly HMS Cornwall lost all communications with its crews and the Lynx was immediately dispatched back, only to find they had completely disappeared. Scanning the huddles of fishing boats, the pilot saw the crew of the merchant ship gesticulating urgently towards the mouth of the Shatt al Arab.

Immediately he spotted a large huddle of boats, clearly displaying Iranian flags. Far more disturbingly a Royal Navy ensign was among them and, upon closer observation, Lt Cmdr Richardson could see some of the British crew he knew only too well.

Briefly the pilot and his observer managed to make contact with the Revolutionary Guard who said they had arrested the Britons for straying into Iranian waters before a cacophony of angry Iranian voices filled the airwaves and he lost contact.

To his horror, he watched as his colleagues were taken up the waterway and into a military base on the Iranian side. There were no signs of violence. The last he saw the British crew members they were standing, detained outside a building. The friends and colleagues of the missing personnel were left to contemplate the situation in stunned conversations across the ship. Yesterday morning, reporters on board the F99 frigate, including from The Independent, were ordered off and flown to Bahrain as the diplomatic row intensified.

Back in London, British Foreign Office minister Lord Triesman summoned the Iranian ambassador to demand the immediate release of the 15 Britons.

It was the second time ambassador Rasoul Movahedian had been called to the Foreign Office, and the meeting, described as "frank but polite", lasted a full hour. Lord Triesman asked to be informed of the prisoners' location and demanded consular access.

The envoy was warned that Iran should not parade the 15 on television as it did when eight British soldiers captured in 2004 in a similar incident were shown blindfolded. They were released after three days, having made a television apology for apparently straying into Iranian territory.

It could be that the 15 sailors could be set free once the Iranians make public their "confession". But fears were growing last night that the crisis could be protracted following the announcement that an investigation is under way.

Additional reporting by Anne Penketh in London and Angus McDowall in Tehran

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