Royal Marines accused of using 'brute force' during seizure of tanker carrying Iranian oil

Marines stormed the tanker near Gibraltar earlier this month after intelligence sources claimed it was carrying oil to a Syrian refinery in breach of EU sanctions.

Now the captain of the captured vessel has claimed Marines told his unarmed crew to kneel on the deck at gunpoint.

Responding, the Ministry of Defence said the seizure complied with ‘international rules and norms’.

On July 4, some 30 Marines from 42 Commando were flown from the UK to Gibraltar to help detain the tanker and its cargo, at the request of the Gibraltar government.

Speaking to the BBC. the vessel's captain, an Indian national who asked not to be named, said he was radioed a police request to board his ship and lowered his ladder.

But before anyone could board, a military helicopter landed on the ship in a ‘very dangerous’ move, he said.

He told the BBC he identified himself as the captain but that the Commandos ignored him and instead pointed their guns and shouted ‘look forward, look forward’.

He said: ‘They didn't care whether I was master… there was no regulations… we had 28 unarmed crew. I was in a state of shock, everybody was in a state of shock.

‘How do you come on a ship like this with armed forces and such brute force. For what reason?’

He said the Marines could have boarded the ship and simply told him he had been arrested.

Asked whether he felt there was anything illegitimate about his ship or the cargo, he told the BBC he had ‘followed company procedures’, adding he did not know about the EU sanctions against Syria.

The captain has since been arrested and bailed by authorities in Gibraltar.

The MoD said the operation on Grace 1 was a ‘standard boarding’ and that British armed forces were ‘held to the highest standards of professionalism’.

Royal Gibraltar Police insisted the Marines had acted in support of its officers and applied ‘the minimum use of force’ during the operation.