Britain and Iran trade barbs over captured sailors

IRAN and Britain stepped up the pressure over 15 detained British soldiers yesterday, with Iranian state TV reporting the Foreign Ministry had protested their ‘illegal’ incursion to the British ambassador.

Britain and the European Union have demanded Iran release the British sailors — seized at gunpoint on Friday by the Iranian navy after they had searched a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al Arab waterway.

Iran says the sailors were trespassing in a “blatant aggression.”