Iranian student groups have called for the Britons to be held until the United States releases five Revolutionary Guard members captured in Iraq in January. Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned newspaper based in London, quoted an unidentified Iranian military source as saying that the aim of the capture had been to trade the Royal Marines for these Guards. "Orders were given to the marine units of the Guards to implement the first part of the plan which included besieging one of the British naval patrols in charge of combating smuggling and arrest the soldiers."

from here

Wolfgang