BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials accused Iran on Tuesday of kidnapping nine coast guardsmen who were pursuing suspected oil smugglers in disputed territorial waters.
The Iraqi coast guard patrol saw the suspected smugglers stealing diesel fuel from an Iraqi pipeline in the Shatt al Arab waterway, said Mohammed Musabah Waily, the governor of the city of Basra in southern Iraq. The Iraqis were captured by Iranians as they gave chase, Waily said. Iran denies the incident took place.
Meanwhile, Iraqi authorities said 35 prospective police recruits were apparently captured Monday as they returned to Samarra from the Baghdad police academy. Police said a group of unidentified, armed men in several cars stopped a bus in which the recruits were riding.
The incident took place in a hotbed of insurgent activity and near the scene of a U.S. helicopter crash Monday that killed two soldiers. The cause of the crash is under investigation, but two insurgent groups have claimed responsibility.
The apparent clash along the Shatt al Arab involving the Iraqi coast guard patrol and Iranian boaters is a reminder of the delicate relations between the two countries that fought an eight-year war in the 1980s. Portions of the river separate Iran and Iraq, and it passes the Iranian port of Abadan before emptying into the Persian Gulf.
Abadan is considered a smugglers' haven where a wide range of products are hustled into and out of Iraq. Smugglers have become especially adept at punching holes in and then siphoning oil or refined fuel from pipelines that run to docking facilities in the waterway and gulf.
Waily, the Basra governor, said the Iraqi patrol chased the smugglers' boats toward Abadan on Monday night.
Iranian boats were called out, gunshots were fired and the Iraqi vessel was seized, Waily said. The governor also accused Iran of firing artillery shells into Iraq.
"We informed the government in Baghdad to handle the situation but did not receive any reply from them," Waily said. He said he heard that one of the nine Iraqis was killed but told a TV reporter he could not confirm it.
A spokeswoman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari said Tuesday that the country had asked for the release of eight sailors and an officer taken prisoner by Iran. The spokeswoman said none of the nine had been killed. Iranian diplomats here, speaking to a Reuters reporter, denied the incident altogether.
