NAVAL leaders have provided incontrovertible proof that British sailors and marines from HMS Cornwall were ambushed and kidnapped by Iranian forces.

Seven Royal Marine Commandos and eight sailors from the frigate were conducting a routine search of an Indian merchant vessel, close to the oil terminals which feed Iraq’s principal export to waiting tankers, when six Iranian gunboats swooped in and ambushed the boarding party as they disembarked.

The kidnapping has sparked a major diplomatic incident with Iran claiming the 15 RN personnel are spies who were operating in Iranian waters.

But Vice Admiral Charles Style, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Commitments) told a press conference the evidence was clear and irrefutable – the Cornwall team were in Iraqi waters going about their “legal business”.

One of Cornwall’s sea boats was equipped with a hi-tech computer system, Xeres, which fed data back to the mother ship constantly, such as the craft’s GPS location – pinpointed by a satellite.

Vice Admiral Style said that data – confirmed by the merchant ship’s master, and by Cornwall’s Lynx which flew over the vessel – clearly proved the boarding party was more than a mile and a half inside Iraqi territorial waters.

The boarding party initially investigated the vessel because it was seen unloading cars into neighbouring barges.

The merchantman was one of more than 60 boarded by the Cornwall team, enforcing UN anti-terror and anti-smuggling resolutions, since the beginning of March – including four boardings conducted near to where the Iranian Islamic Republic Guard Navy struck.

The boarders spent about 90 minutes searching the Indian cargo vessel when communications were lost with the 15.

Cornwall’s Lynx, which was back on the frigate at the time of the kidnapping, was immediately scrambled and reported seeing the two sea boats used by the boarding party being escorted towards the Shatt Al Arab by Iranian gunboats inside Iranian waters.

“HMS Cornwall was going about her legal business. The boarding team was ambushed while disembarking from the merchant vessel,” Vice Admiral Style stressed.