MICHAEL SETTLE AND IAN BRUCE
Des Browne looked increasingly isolated last night after Downing Street sought to distance itself from the so-called "cash for stories" controversy and the Tories maintained pressure on the embattled Defence Secretary.
To add more embarrassment, the families of four soldiers killed in Iraq asked him not to attend the ceremony at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire yesterday to mark the repatriation of their loved ones.
The Ministry of Defence denied Mr Browne had been snubbed by the families over the Navy stories row, pointing out relatives wanted simply to keep the ceremony private.
However, Sally Veck, mother of 19-year-old Eleanor Dlugosz, one of the four killed by a roadside bomb, said: "If you are a member of the military, it is your duty to serve your country. You should do your duty and not expect to make money by selling stories."
With the Conservative opposition seeking to keep the cash for stories controversy going until Monday when the Defence Secretary is due to give a Commons statement, No 10 stumbled in to help their cause when a spokesman issued a stiff denial that it had "anything to do" with the decision to allow personnel to profit from their ordeal.
Military sources confirmed yesterday the British commander of the coalition flotilla which allowed 15 naval personnel to be captured by Iranian Revolutionary Guards could face internal disciplinary action.
Commodore Nick Lambert, an experienced officer who has completed four tours in the Gulf region, is the subject of a board of inquiry into why the boarding party was left exposed and vulnerable when the Iranians closed in.
The armed Lynx helicopter from HMS Cornwall, the group's parent frigate and the Task Force 158 flagship, had returned to the flight deck - reputedly to economise on fuel - instead of hovering over the Indian freighter targeted for inspection.
The boarding episode lasted 80 minutes. The Lynx has an airborne endurance of four hours without refuelling.
Sources also say the US military command in Baghdad had issued an intelligence warning that Tehran might be seeking British or US captives to trade for their own agents held inside Iraq after raids in January.
The Ministry of Defence will not comment on events which are the subject of boards of inquiry before investigations have been completed.
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