UK sailor letter says she sacrificed by govt policies

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's embassy in London on Friday released a third letter purporting to be from captured British sailor Faye Turney, in which she wrote she had been "sacrificed due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments".

"It is now time to ask our government to make a change to its oppressive behavior toward other people," the letter said.

Iran seized Turney along with 14 other British sailors and marines in the northern Gulf last Friday when they were on a U.N. mission.

Tehran says they had strayed into Iranian waters but Britain insists the military personnel were well within Iraqi territory.

Iran's London embassy and state television has released several letters from Turney and broadcast footage of the captured sailors confessing to their illegal entry into Iranian water and saying they are being well looked-after.

"Whereas we hear and see on the news the way prisoners were treated in Abo-Ghrayb (sic) and other Iraqi jails by British and American personnel, I have received total respect and faced no harm," the third letter read.

She said the incident had caused "even more distrust for the people of Iran, and the whole area in the British (sic)".

"I believe that for our countries to move forward we need to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and leave the people of Iraq to start rebuilding their lives," the letter said.