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Iran Releases Eight British Servicemen

Iran released eight British servicemen on Thursday who were on board three British patrol boats which entered Iranian waters without permission earlier in the week.

The servicemen were handed over to British diplomats in Iran and boarded a plane to leave the Gulf region.

The six marines and two soldiers were taken into Iranian custody on Monday after straying into Iranian territories near southern Iraq in what was declaredly an accident.

Iranian news reports said Iran refused to let the soldiers continue their journey into Iraq because they opposed the British involvement with the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

The handover became possible after lengthy negotiations between British diplomats and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported this week that the real reason Iran refused to hand over the British soldiers was to pressure London into releasing 40 Iranians detained in Iraq.

Sources in the Revolutionary Guards told the paper that Ukrainian soldiers in the coalition forces in Iraq arrested 40 Iranians from a group called The Organization for the Honor of Holy Martyrs.

A senior member of the Revolutionary Guards approached the Ukraine and requested the Iranians be released, only to be informed that the detainees were handed over to British forces.

The issue of the Iranian soldiers was not mentioned in news reports related to the British soldiers’ release.