Fifteen British sailors and marines held captive for nearly two weeks left Iran early Thursday aboard a commercial flight bound for London, ending a standoff a day after Iran's president announced their release. The British crew sat in business class on the British Airways flight that departed Mehrabad International Airport around 8:30 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EDT), an Associated Press reporter at the scene reported. They arrived at the airport in a convoy of black sedans about an hour earlier escorted by the elite Revolutionary Guards. British ambassador to Iran, Geoffrey Adams, who was at the airport, declined to comment. Before boarding, the sailors received gifts given to them on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's behalf, Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA, reported.
