All 10 detained US Navy sailors freed

Washington: Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday it has released 10 US sailors who it had detained a day earlier, according to the Guards' statement broadcast on state television.

"It was determined that the detained American Marines did not enter Iranian waters intentionally. Following their apology, they have been released to international waters in the Gulf," state television quoted a Guards statement as saying.

Iran detained the sailors aboard two US Navy patrol boats in the Arabian Gulf on Tuesday in an incident that rattled nerves days ahead of the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers.

A handout picture released on January 13, 2016, by the news website and public relations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Sepah News, shows US sailors under detention in the Farsi Island by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. - AFP 
 

Ten US sailors were held in Iranian custody on Iran's Farsi island in the Arabian Gulf, according to reports quoting senior US officials.

The US sailors -- nine male and one female -- were on board two US navy boats, when they were reportedly detained after their vessels were stopped en route from Kuwait to Bahrain.

NBC News and CNN reported that Secretary of State John Kerry had called Iranian officials in Tehran on Tuesday to explain that two U.S. Navy vessels had mistakenly strayed into Iranian territorial waters.

The sailors are being held on Iran's Farsi Island in the middle of the Arabian Gulf, according to senior U.S. officials.

The two Riverine patrol boats were on a training exercise when they lost contact after being seized by Iranian military forces, the Navy said.

A Pentagon official told Reuters that Iran is holding nine men sailors and one woman sailor from the two Navy vessels it seized Tuesday near the Farsi Island in the Arabian Gulf.

Washington: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday that U.S. sailors who ended up in Iranian custody would be allowed to continue their journey promptly, a senior Obama administration official said on condition of anonymity.
 

Kerry and Zarif were two of the main negotiators in the July 14 agreement under Earlier, a U.S. defense official said the US military lost contact with two small U.S. boats en route from Kuwait to Bahrain.

Iranian forces are holding 10 American sailors in custody Tuesday after two U.S. Navy boats moving between Kuwait and Bahrain reportedly drifted into Iranian-claimed waters.

The boats were holding a training exercise when they lost contact with the U.S. command, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told the Associated Press.

“We have been in contact with Iran and have received assurances that the crew and the vessels will be returned promptly,” Cook said.

The White House said it was working to resolve the situation, Reuters reported, and hoped to return the crew to its normal work soon.