One-hundred Marines will be sent to the Gulf to protect British ships after tankers were attacked (Image: GETTY)
Military sources said 100 soldiers from 42 Commando, stationed near Plymouth, will fly to Bahrain in the coming weeks and operate from navy ships patrolling the waters. They will make up Special Purpose Task Group 19, operating out of Britain’s new £40million naval base in Bahrain. The UK and the US have said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind Thursday’s explosions on two vessels in the Gulf of Oman.
Saudi Arabia has also said the ships - one Norwegian-owned and one Japanese-owned - were targeted by the Iranians.
Troops will use speedboats and helicopters to protect warships and UK merchant vessels, reports The Sunday Times.
A military source said if marines were stationed with machine-guns on the decks of warships it would deter Iranian speedboats from launching attacks.
America has produced a video which it says shows Iranian forces in a small
