Official: UK to resume boarding operations

Above: A joint Iraqi-British patrol in the Shatt al Arab ('Arab Coastline') waterway where HMS Cornwall crew members were seized. Left: National boundaries of the waterway -- Iraq's only outlet to the sea -- have long been contested by Iraq and Iran, which calls it the Arvandrud ('Arvand River').

Britain is to resume naval boarding operations in the northern Gulf that it suspended last month after 15 sailors and marines were held by Iran, Defence Secretary Des Browne told parliament on Tuesday.

Britain suspended its participation in anti-smuggling searches after Iranian gunboats captured the sailors near the sea border between Iran and Iraq shortly after they searched a cargo ship.

But Browne said in a written statement to parliament the mission would now resume with unspecified new measures taken "to ensure the risk to boarding operations is minimised".

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

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