Pentagon: US Sailors Made ‘Navigational Error’ Into Iranian Waters
MIAMI: The 10 US sailors briefly held by Iran before being released on Wednesday made a navigational mistake that led them into Iranian waters but did not communicate that to Navy commanders before being intercepted, the US military said on Thursday.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the information came from debriefings of the sailors, who were flown on Wednesday to a US military facility in Qatar after Iran released them along with their two riverine boats.
Carter’s comments were the most detailed from American officials on the incident, which rattled nerves just before the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
Diplomats in Washington and Tehran, through a series of anxious phone calls, sought to resolve the incident quickly, ensuring it did not torpedo the nuclear accord.
In the end, Iran released the US sailors – nine men and one woman – on Wednesday, a day after they were detained.
The speedy resolution of the incident contrasted with previous cases in which British servicemen were held considerably longer, in one case nearly two weeks.
Carter said the sailors apparently did not radio in to tell their commanders they were off-course before encountering the Iranians.
He denied the sailors were on a covert mission, saying that “they were simply transiting from one place to another.”
Still, many questions about the incident remained unanswered, including what precisely led the sailors off-course and how they did not realise they were in danger before being detained by Iran.
One US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was clear the boats did not run out of fuel. Another official said one of the boats suffered engine trouble after it had already gone off-course.
Iranian state television has released footage of the arrest, showing the sailors as they knelt down with hands behind their heads and their two vessels being surrounded by several Iranian military fast boats.
It also released footage of one of the detained men, identified as a US Navy commander, apologising for the incident.
Carter acknowledged his discomfort over the images but urged against a rush to judgment.
General Lloyd Austin, who leads the US military’s Central Command, said: “We’ll know a lot more after we’ve finished debriefing our sailors.”
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Source:Ndtv
