The West held hostage: Day 10

More propaganda video.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post is reporting that a U.S. missile attack on Iran may be imminent:

According to Russian intelligence sources … the US has devised a plan to attack several targets in Iran, and an assault could be carried out by launching missiles from fighter jets and warships stationed in the Persian Gulf.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted a security official as saying, "Russian intelligence has information that the US Armed Forces stationed in the Persian Gulf have nearly completed preparations for a missile strike against Iranian territory."

The attack could come as early as April 6—which also happens to be Good Friday.

This comports with a report by Debka that American expats in Bahrain have been advised to pack their bags:

The advice came from officers with US Central Command Fifth Fleet HQ at Manama, who spoke of security tension, a hint at an approaching war with Iran. [Fifth Fleet Central Command denies this.] Arab sources report the positioning of a Patriot anti-missile battery in Bahrain this week; they say occupancy at emirate hotels has soared past 90% due mostly to the influx of US military personnel. They also report Western media crews normally employed in military coverage are arriving in packs.

Thursday, March 29, Gen. Khaled al-‘Absi, Bahrain’s chief of air defense operations disclosed that new alarm networks had been installed and air defense systems upgraded to handle chemical, biological and radioactive attacks.

The USS Nimitz and its support ships will be departing San Diego Monday, April 2, to join the John C. Stennis Strike Group in the Persian Gulf. The nuclear carrier is due to relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower , but military sources in the Gulf believe all three US carriers will stay put if tensions continue to climb or if fighting breaks out involving American, British and Iranian forces.

The mighty American armada is further supported by the USS Bataan and USS Boxer strike groups.

War tensions have been triggered most recently by the crisis over the seized British sailors and large-scale US sea, air and amphibious exercises in the Gulf.

IRIB, Iran's state-run broadcast media, is also claiming that two U.S. planes violated Iranian airspace in the southwestern province of Khuzestan (a "target-rich environment" that's home to the country's largest oilfield, a vital petroleum refinery and, recently, a construction site for a nuclear reactor):

The airplanes on Saturday violated Iranian airspace from the northwest of Abadan, Khuzestan province, and disappeared from its southwest, said Colonel Aqili, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Abadan.

"The planes cast out white smoke trails, attracting the local people's attention," he was quoted as saying.

He also said that American airplanes had violated Iranian airspace several times in the past.

Things could get interesting in the next few weeks (or even days).

UPDATE: Walid Phares has an excellent analysis of the hostage-taking at the Counterterrorism Blog.