Iran said Monday it had confiscated three British naval vessels and arrested eight armed crew members. The Royal Navy acknowledged it had lost contact with three small patrol boats on a routine mission in the waterway between Iraq and Iran.  

British officials did not confirm the boats were captured or the crewmembers detained.

"I can confirm that three small Royal Navy patrol boats and eight crew have been out of communication since the early hours of this morning," said a British military spokesman in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on condition of anonymity. "It is not unusual for the Royal Navy to be patrolling the Shatt-al-Arab" waterway.

Iranian-British relations have been strained in recent days, since London helped draft a resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors meeting last week in Vienna that rebuked Iran for past cover-ups involving its development of nuclear technology.

Iran says its program is aimed only at producing energy, while the United States accuses Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran accused Britain of caving in to US pressure on the resolution.

The three British vessels entered Iranian territorial waters not far from the Iran-Iraq border, the Arabic language Al-Alam television reported.

Iranian forces "confiscated" the vessels and eight military personnel who were on board, the report said.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi confirmed the report, according to Iran's main Persian language TV channel.

"Interrogation of those detained will continue until the matter is clarified," Asefi was quoted as saying.

The Royal Navy said it had lost contact with three small patrol boats early Monday.

A Defense Ministry spokesman described the vessels as "river boat craft with outboard motors," used for training patrols.

The Iranian TV report said crew members were carrying maps and weapons. It also said the vessels were confiscated about 11 am between the Bahmanshir and Arvand rivers, which would put them in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway east of the Iraqi city of Faw.

The ministry said there were no British warships operating in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway but some smaller vessels were there.

The Foreign Office said British diplomats in Tehran had been in contact with the Iranian government but it was still unclear what had happened.

The Royal Navy has been training Iraqi personnel in coastal defense for several weeks on the waterway, and it is possible that the vessels were part of that exercise.

(China Daily via agencies, June 22, 2004)