Iran’s Failed Aussie Hostage Attempt
Charles Johnson
Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 9:07 pm PDT • Views: 846
Apparently, when Iran captured those British sailors it wasn’t their first attempt; they went for an Australian Navy boarding team first: Iran ‘unable to take Australians’.
Iranian naval forces in the Gulf tried to capture an Australian Navy boarding team but were vigorously repelled, the BBC has learned.
The incident took place before Iran successfully seized 15 British sailors and Marines in March.
The lessons from the earlier attempt do not appear to have been applied in time by British maritime patrols.
The 15 Britons were searching a cargo boat in the Gulf when they were captured over a boundary dispute. When Iranian Revolutionary Guards captured the British sailors and Royal Marines in March, it was not exactly their first attempt.
It turns out that Iranian forces made an earlier concerted attempt to seize a boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy.
The Australians, though, to quote one military source, “were having none of it”.
The BBC has been told the Australians re-boarded the vessel they had just searched, aimed their machine guns at the approaching Iranians and warned them to back off, using what was said to be “highly colourful language”.
(Hat tip: LGF readers.)
Frank says: