US Sailors Released By Iran
US Navy sailors detained for 'trespassing' on Iran's territorial waters have now been released by Iran.
Nine men and one woman spent the night being interrogated at an Iranian Revolutionary guard base on the Persian Gulf island of Farsi after their patrol boats were picked up after drifting into Iranian waters.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards' naval commander, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, said investigations had concluded "that this trespassing was not hostile or for spying purposes".
The US Department of Defense had been in contact with Iran and always expected the US Navy crew members to be returned "promptly".
It's understood that at least one of the small vessels suffered a mechanical failure while en-route from Kuwait to Bahrain. It then drifted into Iranian territorial waters where it was intercepted by the country's Revolutionary Guard.
A 38-foot Riverine Patrol boat of the type seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday.
A White House official said: "Earlier today, we lost contact with two small US naval craft en route from Kuwait to Bahrain."
"We subsequently have been in communication with Iranian authorities, who have informed us of the safety and well-being of our personnel."
"We have received assurances the sailors will promptly be allowed to continue their journey."
The US sailors are being held at a naval base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.
In 2007 a similar incident occurred when eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines were seized by the Iranian military while patrolling off the Iraqi coast. Having launched from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall in two rigid inflatable boats they were taken into custody while conducting anti-smuggling operations.
Paraded on Iranian state television and forced to write letters of apology they were released after 13 days in what the then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called "a gift to the people of Britain."
Related topics
Join Our Newsletter
