Navy chief praises sailors' conduct

The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, said that he believed they had behaved with "considerable dignity and a lot of courage" during their time in Iranian hands. He said that "confessions" made by some of the group - including the only woman Leading Seaman Faye Turney - appeared to have been made under "a certain amount of psychological pressure".

Admiral Band also confirmed that the Navy had suspended all boarding operations in the northern Gulf while it carried out a "complete review" of the incident which led to them being seized. In an interview with the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Admiral Band strongly rejected criticisms that the sailors and marines surrendered too easily to the Iranians and were too eager to co-operate with their captors.

As the 15 continued their debriefing by senior officers at the Royal Marines Base at Chivenor, north Devon, said accusations they "surrendered first and apologised later" were "extremely unfair".

"I would not agree at all that it was not our finest hour. I think our people have reacted extremely well in some very difficult circumstances," he said.

While he said that the decision to carry out the operation to board and search a merchant ship which led to their seizure had been "absolutely proper", he said there would be a "complete review" of the incident.

"Clearly, whenever things go wrong - and certainly this is not an incident we at all wanted - we will review everything that we normally do," he said. "Was the intelligence correct? We will look at the equipment, we will look at the procedures, we will look at all the things that happened. We certainly wouldn't want this to happen again."

He confirmed that the review would also look at the rules of engagement for UK forces operating in the area, but he rejected suggestions that the crews could have fought back against their captors.

"It is quite clear to me, in the context of the operation that morning, with the force that was shown against them, they made exactly the right decision. I stand by what they did. This was not open combat. This was not an attack on a street. This was doing absolutely legal boarding operations in a legal part of the world where they were illegally acted upon.

"When you are in that situation as Servicemen, you have a situation in front of you, you have rules of engagement, and then you have to make a judgment with respect to the danger of your life of what you do. From what we think we know - and obviously this will be confirmed in the debriefing - I think they acted extremely sensibly."