2007 Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel

RHIB from , intercepting a cargo vessel off Iraq in 2002. Similar to those embarked on Cornwall.

Date	23 March 2007
Location	Persian Gulf
Result	Two British boats confiscated, 15 Royal Navy personnel arrested

Belligerents

British Royal Navy

Navy of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution

Casualties and losses

15 captured

none

Iranian military personnel seized 15 Royal Navy personnel during 2007 and held them for 13 days. On 23 March 2007, 15 British Royal Navy personnel, from , searching a merchant vessel were surrounded by the Navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and subsequently detained off the Iran-Iraq coast. In the course of events, British forces claimed that the vessel was in Iraqi waters, but the Iranian side insisted that they were in Iran's territorial waters. The 15 personnel were released on 4 April 2007.

A year later, a British investigation report was released which stated that the area in which the incident took place was not covered by any formal agreement between Iran and Iraq.

The team of eight sailors and seven Royal Marines in two rigid-hulled inflatable boats from the Type 22 frigate had been searching a merchant dhow for smuggled automobiles when they were detained at roughly 10:30 Iraqi time (07:30 GMT; 11:00 Iranian time) by the crews of two Iranian boats; a further six Iranian boats then assisted in the seizure. The British personnel were subsequently taken to an Iranian Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran for questioning. Iranian officials claimed that the British sailors were in Iranian waters. A University of Durham analysis of the initial Iranian identification of the location of the boats showed that the position given was in Iraqi waters. According to the , the Iranians allegedly issued a "corrected" location, which placed the boats in Iranian waters.

Information provided by Britain initially consistently placed the boats in Iraqi waters. However, the subsequent report by the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Select Committee confirmed that the map presented to the worldwide media was "inaccurate" as it presented a boundary line when no maritime boundary between the two countries has been agreed upon, and so "The Government was fortunate that it was not in Iran's interests to contest the accuracy of the map." The Foreign Affairs Committee also criticised the government for failing to contact a key Iranian negotiator in a timely manner. Reports in April 2008 citing documents from the MoD inquiry into the incident state that the British sailors captured by Iran were in disputed waters, that the US-led coalition had drawn a boundary line between Iran and Iraq without informing the Iranians, and that Iranian coastal protection vessels regularly crossed this coalition defined boundary.

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Wikipedia