thedrifter
03-24-03, 11:28 AM
Iran denies its units fired on coalition troops in Iraq
Mon Mar 24, 7:22 AM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian official strongly denied charges by British commandos that coalition troops in southern Iraq (news - web sites) had come under fire from Iranian forces across the border.
"We consider this allegation as baseless," the official told AFP on Monday.
British Royal Marine commandos on the Fao peninsula said Sunday that both they and low-flying US aircraft had come under sporadic fire from Iranian anti-aircraft batteries and fixed machine-gun posts.
The 40 Commando marines were in the town of Fao on the far south of the peninsula, just a few hundred metres (yards) from the Shatt al-Arab waterway that marks the border.
A Royal Marines spokesman said: "We are content that the fire from Iran was inaccurate and ineffective, but none the less puzzling".
The first of several volleys, witnessed by a reporter from London's Daily Mirror, was directed at a US A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack jet that swooped low over the Iraqi town to "buzz" a gun position.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi-Lari warned Sunday that the Iranian army would "react" if there were further violations of its airspace by US and British warplanes.
"Our soldiers on the border are on full alert ... If they observe the slightest violation of Iranian airspace or at the border they will certainly react," he threatened.
Tehran, officially neutral in the US-led war to depose Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), has condemned what it says have been repeated violations of its airspace by coalition planes.
Iran has had no diplomatic relations with Washington since after the 1979 Islamic revolution and looks nervously at the presence of the US military in neighboring Iraq to the west and Afghanistan (news - web sites) to the east.
Sempers,
Roger
Mon Mar 24, 7:22 AM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian official strongly denied charges by British commandos that coalition troops in southern Iraq (news - web sites) had come under fire from Iranian forces across the border.
"We consider this allegation as baseless," the official told AFP on Monday.
British Royal Marine commandos on the Fao peninsula said Sunday that both they and low-flying US aircraft had come under sporadic fire from Iranian anti-aircraft batteries and fixed machine-gun posts.
The 40 Commando marines were in the town of Fao on the far south of the peninsula, just a few hundred metres (yards) from the Shatt al-Arab waterway that marks the border.
A Royal Marines spokesman said: "We are content that the fire from Iran was inaccurate and ineffective, but none the less puzzling".
The first of several volleys, witnessed by a reporter from London's Daily Mirror, was directed at a US A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack jet that swooped low over the Iraqi town to "buzz" a gun position.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi-Lari warned Sunday that the Iranian army would "react" if there were further violations of its airspace by US and British warplanes.
"Our soldiers on the border are on full alert ... If they observe the slightest violation of Iranian airspace or at the border they will certainly react," he threatened.
Tehran, officially neutral in the US-led war to depose Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), has condemned what it says have been repeated violations of its airspace by coalition planes.
Iran has had no diplomatic relations with Washington since after the 1979 Islamic revolution and looks nervously at the presence of the US military in neighboring Iraq to the west and Afghanistan (news - web sites) to the east.
Sempers,
Roger