Parsley Isle Claims Get Spain's Goat

A herd of goats has become the latest issue of contention in a bitter dispute between Spain and Morocco.

Rajma Lachili, a Moroccan peasant, has demanded compensation from Spain's defence ministry, claiming that crack troops who stormed the tiny disputed islet of Parsley in July killed four of her goats.

It was not clear yesterday whether she thought that her goats had been shot in revenge for a Moroccan "invasion" of the islet 10 days earlier or whether the elite Spanish commandos and their noisy helicopters had simply frightened them to death.

The Spanish troops captured six Moroccan soldiers who were occupying the isle without firing a shot.

Spain's defence ministry has denied that its soldiers were goat killers. They had found the remains of two goats when they got there, a spokesman said. The goats, he said, had been butchered and eaten for lunch by the Moroccans.

Ms Lachili has explained that for years she had been loading her goats on to a friend's boat and rowing them across to the isle, which lies 300m (980ft) off the Moroccan coast in the strait of Gibraltar, to let them loose.

"That way you do not have to pay a goat herd," she said.

Her goats had been feasting on the eponymous wild parsley for years, blissfully unaware they were on disputed territory.