A Foreign Office minister held fresh crisis talks with the Iranian ambassador today in a bid to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy personnel.

Efforts are continuing today to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines seized by Iranian patrol boats off the coast of Iraq.

British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett has demanded Iran provide a "full explanation" for the detention of 15 British servicemen seized in Iraqi waters.

British sailors seized today in Iraqi territorial waters were taken by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy, a radical force that operates independently from the regular Iranian Navy, a US official said.

Britain was today facing a new diplomatic crisis with Iran after 15 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines were seized at gunpoint by Iranian warships off Iraq.

More than 1,000 British and Danish troops stormed five houses in southern Iraq today, using ground forces, boats, helicopters and jets in a raid that detained five Iraqis and confiscated a large cache of weapons.

More than 1,000 British and Danish troops stormed five houses in southern Iraq today, using ground forces, boats, helicopters and jets in a raid that detained five Iraqis and confiscated a large cache of weapons.

Eight Iraqi sailors detained by Iran after a weekend clash in a shared waterway were released early today, Iraqi officials said, but the body of a ninth sailor had not yet been repatriated.

Nine Iraqi sailors detained by Iran after a weekend clash involving an Iranian vessel are expected to be returned later today, according to Iraqi officials.

Iran will publicly display this month the three British military boats it confiscated when they strayed into its waters along the Iraq border last year.

Eight British troops who were detained after straying into Iranian territorial waters have arrived in Tehran, state-run television reported today, and Britain said the men were in the custody of British diplomats.

Eight British soldiers and marines who were detained after straying into Iranian territorial waters have left the Persian Gulf area for Tehran, state-run Iranian television reported.

Iranian state television has said the release of eight British sailors and marines has been postponed until Thursday.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said eight British sailors and royal marines, detained for illegally entering Iranian waters, have been released.

Eight British servicemen detained for illegally entering Iran’s territorial waters will be released today, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said.

Iran seized three small British navy boats and arrested eight armed crew members today as they patrolled the Shatt al Arab waterway, which forms a southern border with Iraq.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday thanked British troops in Iraq for the “magnificent” job they had done in helping to liberate the country.

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S Republican Guards were headed on a collision course with American forces south of Baghdad last night in the first sign of an Iraqi offensive out of the capital.

THE key city of Basra is no stranger to scenes of civilian uprising against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein – or the bloody aftermath following the withdrawal of western allies.

An entire division of the Iraqi army, numbering 8,000 soldiers, surrendered to coalition forces in southern Iraq on Friday, Pentagon officials said.

COALITION forces were last night poised to take the strategic city of Basra as the war against Saddam Hussein looked like entering a new phase.