TEHRAN, Jan. 13 (UPI) — Ten U.S. Navy sailors and two patrol boats were released Wednesday after Iranian military found they entered territorial waters as the “result of an unpurposeful action and a mistake,” a state-run news agency in Iran reported.
It is unclear exactly when sailors, who were aboard two patrol boats in the Persian Gulf, will be released. The Pentagon said one of the boats had experienced mechanical problems while en route from Kuwait to Bahrain and strayed into Iranian territorial waters. U.S. officials have not commented on the release.
The Iranian semi-official Fars news agency reported the Revolutionary Guard issued a statement saying, “it has released the U.S. marines [sic] and their vessels in international waters” after its investigations showed they had gone astray in the Persian Gulf.
Fars reported the Revolutionary Guard found “the U.S. combat vessels’ illegal entry into the Iranian waters was not the result of a purposeful act.”
“Following technical and operational investigations and in interaction with relevant political and national security bodies of the country and after it became clear that the U.S. combat vessels’ illegal entry into the Islamic Republic of Iran’s waters was the result of an unpurposeful action and a mistake and after they extended an apology, the decision was made to release them,” the statement said.
Early on, the state-run news channel IRINN reported the top commander for the naval forces of the Revolutionary Guards said the entry into Iranian waters was due to a navigational-system problem.
Brig. Gen. Ramezan Sharif, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards, said the sailors were held under good condition and treated with “Islamic compassion.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter released a statement Wednesday morning, saying he was “pleased” the sailors were “back in U.S. hands.”
“I want to personally thank Secretary of State John Kerry for his diplomatic engagement with Iran to secure our sailors’ swift return. Around the world, the U.S. Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress, and we appreciate the timely way in which this situation was resolved,” he said.
