A Forced Confession ; Iran Hostage Crisis: Day 11

Apr 02, 01:41 AM

Current Headlines: By BOB ROBERTS Deputy

IRAN'S leaders cynically stoked up the tension over the 15 Royal Navy hostages last night by parading two more crewmen on TV.

The unnamed pair were made to point at charts that supposedly showed their patrol boats were in Iranian waters when they and their colleagues were snatched 11 days ago.

The two sailors appeared in separate video clips wearing military fatigues and pointing at the same charts. They had the words "the point where military boats were captured" scrawled on it in red pen.

The pair were clearly talking to the camera but Iran's state- owned Al-Alam TV station did not broadcast their voices. Instead, a newscaster said the two had "confessed" to illegally trespassing into Iranian waters.

He added that they were receiving "good and humanitarian treatment."

The stunt is the latest attempt by Iran's leaders to undermine Britain's case that the patrol boat was operating in Iraqi waters on a routine UN-sanctioned anti-smuggling patrol.

Iran has already sparked revulsion and fury worldwide by parading leading seaman Faye Turney, 26, and Royal Marine Nathan Summers, 21, in front of the cameras. Both "confessed" to illegally being in Iranian waters.

Hours before last night's broadcast, a 200-strong mob hurled stones and firecrackers at Britain's embassy in Tehran.

The students chanted "British, British, death to you" and yelled that the embassy building was "a den of spies."

At least eight blasts were heard as firecrackers and rocks were hurled over the wall. Dozens of police stopped the protesters breaking into the embassy compound. But a few scaled a fence outside the main walls before being pushed back.

One British diplomat in the Tehran compound yesterday played down the attack, insisting the atmosphere among embassy staff was "calm and workmanlike." He added: "We heard some bangs but there is no damage and no fire. We are carrying on."

In London the Foreign Office also deployed a softy-softly approach to avoid a heightening of tension.

A spokesman said: "There was no damage and no-one was injured. There is a police presence outside and there is no risk to those inside. There have been worse demonstrations in the past and this was a normal working day."

The British sailors and marines were seized on March 23 near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway that divides Iran and Iraq.

Iran insists the navy's patrol boats trespassed in Iranian waters.

Britain has provided tracking satellite evidence that shows the patrol - on a routine anti-smuggling mission and operating under a UN mandate - was in Iraqi waters.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said yesterday the government was in contact with Iran.

Speaking during a visit to Afghanistan, he said: "We are in direct bi-lateral communications with the Iranians and they know that we have a very clear position.

"The message from the UN and the EU is that it is their responsibility to release the detained personnel."

But yesterday's attack has worrying echoes of the start of the 1979 political crisis when the US embassy in Tehran was stormed by a mob. More than fifty hostages were seized - and held for 444 days before they were freed. Then, the mob had been stirred into a frenzy by a series of rabid anti-American speeches from Iran's leaders. And yesterday the country's current leaders seemed intent on escalating this crisis.

TV station Al Allam claimed two U.S. aircraft had violated Iranian air space.

And Iran sent a letter to the British embassy in Tehran complaining about shots fired by British troops near its consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The Ministry of Defence said the shots came from a British convoy that was ambushed in the same street as the consulate A spokeswoman added: "It is pure coincidence this took place in the vicinity of the Iranian consulate."

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already accused the British government of "arrogance" for refusing to apologise.

Meanwhile, in London yesterday about a dozen placard-waving protesters demonstrated outside the Iranian Embassy in London and called for the release of the 15.

Car and bus drivers sounded their horns in support.

And prayers were said in the local church of Faye Turney, a married mum of a three-year-old daughter and the only woman among the captives.

The Rev Sue Caddy, vicar of Shelton and Oxon parish near Shrewsbury, said: "We are very worried about her. We have been praying for her. We are praying for their release."

Five of the other hostages have also been named. They are Marines Adam Sperry, 22, Joe Tindell, 21, Danny Masterton, 26, Paul Barton, 21, and corporal Dean Harris, 24.

bob.roberts@mirror.co.uk

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