Sailors' behavior in captivity probed

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LONDON -- Fifteen British sailors and marines flew home after 13 days in Iranian captivity yesterday to a barrage of questions about their behavior while detained.

The 14 men and one woman, clad in ill-fitting civilian clothes and laden with bags full of CDs, candy and other gifts from their Iranian captors, flew out of Tehran aboard a British Airways jetliner and landed seven hours later in London en route to a marine base in southwest England.

They touched down at London's Heathrow Airport almost precisely 24 hours after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in what was described as a stunning piece of political theater, told the eight sailors and seven marines that he was freeing them as "a gift to the British people."

The 15, all crew members aboard the frigate HMS Cornwall, were flown immediately aboard two naval helicopters to the Royal Marines Base Chivenor, near Barnstaple, Devon. They were first to be reunited with their ecstatic families and then were to begin a military debriefing, starting with how they managed to be captured in the first place.

A spokesman for Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth told reporters the debriefing would last for "hours, not days." He insisted that "the time scale might be based on what their needs are ... the priority is how they feel."

But it might not be that simple. Almost from the moment they were captured on March 23 by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the awkward questions have mounted -- starting with whether, as the Iranians say, the Britons had strayed into Iranian waters or were still on the Iraqi side of the boundary.

Prime Minister Tony Blair based his case for their prompt release on his contention that the 15 were captured in Iraqi waters. But several of the captives were shown on Iranian television freely "confessing" to the Iranian government's report that they had indeed strayed into Iranian territory.

The relaxed, often smiling appearance of the captives on Iranian TV, along with their admissions of guilt, has caused considerable unease in Britain.

Analyst Steven Glover wrote that Britain was likely to lose prestige in the Middle East "as a result of the on-screen admissions by several of the hostages that they had illegally strayed into Iranian waters, as well as their profuse and seemingly supine statements of gratitude to their captors."

Another who said he was troubled by the images was Col. Bob Stewart, a commander of British peacekeeping forces during the Bosnian conflict.