15 Royal Navy sailors captured at gunpoint by Iranian guards Friday, March 23, 2007Fifteen British Royal Navy personnel have been captured by Iranian authorities at gunpoint in the Persian Gulf off the Iraqi coast, according to the British Ministry of Defence. The Royal Navy insists that they were operating in Iraqi waters. The Iranian government initially gave the location of the incident as being inside Iraqi waters. After comments from the UK government, Iran gave a revised position for the incident, and the new position provided by the Iranians was outside Iraqi waters and within Iranian territorial waters. The Iranian government then stated that it was not the first time that British ships had entered Iranian waters. The sailors and marines, from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall, had been inspecting, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1723, a ship that was believed to be smuggling cars into Iraq, though it was subsequently cleared after inspection. HMS Cornwall at Zeebrugge in 2006. The incident occurred near the Shatt al-Arab (Arvandrud) waterway, which forms the southern border between Iran and Iraq. Territorial and navigational control over the waterway has been a constant source of friction between the two countries, helping spark the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The Ministry of Defence said that the Royal Navy personnel had been engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters and had finished their search of the suspect vessel when they were surrounded by Iranian.