The Sun

by David Willetts

A FLEET of suicide ships is being built by crackpot naval commanders in Iran.

More than 9,000 speedboats have been made with deadly explosives engineered into their hulls.

The vessels - to patrol the Persian Gulf where UK forces operate - will be piloted by extremist "martyrs".

They can be rammed into the side of "enemy" ships and each carries enough explosives to rip a seven-metre hole in a boat's keel.

Around 30,000 kamikaze captains are being trained to steer the ships, a source claimed.

There are plans to build 15,000 of the six-metre vessels. Their C4 explosives go off when rammed into larger ships.

An Iranian defector asked to design the crafts revealed the secret plot after fleeing the country - led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The ex-military engineer, said: "They wanted me to help build a vast fleet of suicide boats. It's shocking. That amount of explosives is deadly. I love Iran and that's why I'm revealing this. No one in Iran wants a war."

A US vessel was attacked by a suicide boat in 2000, killing 17, in Yemen.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3264959/Irans-secret-plot-for-9000-bomb-filled-boats.html