SCOOP LINK: The Botched US Raid That Led To The
Hostage Crisis
Exclusive Report: How a bid
to kidnap Iranian security officials sparked a diplomatic
crisis
By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 03 April
2007
A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines.
Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds.
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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2414760.ece
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