MADRID -- Anti-Khomeini Iranian gunmen hijacked an Iranian navy tropedo boat as it was leaving the Spanish port of Cadiz in a three-ship convoy and forced it to sail to Tangiers, Morocco, the Spanish foreign ministry said today.
The foreign ministry said the anti-Khomeini guerrillas boarded the French-built torpedo boat Thursday, using a commandeered Spanish tugboat to launch the attack.
The commandeered boat was taken to Tangiers in Morocco, but the other two boats in the convoy returned to a Spanish port, he said. The fate of the hijacked crew was not immediately known.
An Iranian dissident group in Paris claimed the attack, he said.
The Iranian dissidents rented a tug at Cadiz, saying they were going 'on a recreation trip' in Cadiz bay, the spokesman said.
'The torpedo boats left Cadiz about one mile apart, and the Iranians attacked the last boat,' the spokesman said.
The Iranians destroyed the Salazon tugboat's radio and forced the captain at gunpoint to draw alongside the torpedo boat, the spokesman said. He said they were heavily armed.
The convoy of 'Combattante' torpedo boats was en route to Iran from Cherbourg, France, where they were built. They left France 10 days ago.
The convoy made two stops in Spanish ports for overhauls. The first was at El Ferrol in northwest Spain and the second was at Cadiz on the Mediterranean.
The foreign ministry spokesman said the two ships who escaped the attack remained in port at Algeciras 'to analyze the situation.'
'The whole incident occured in Spanish territorial waters and we will have to see what to do about it,' he said.
