Iran says all 10 detained US Navy sailors have been released

Senior U.S. administration officials sought to quell concerns over the incident, saying they had assurances from the Iranian government that the sailors were being treated well and would be released soon.

The Iranian TV report said the sailors and U.S. forces “acted unprofessionally” prior to their capture Tuesday a. CNN reports Iran is now demanding an apology, and the sailors remain in captivity as they are questioned about whether they entered Iran’s waters to gather intelligence.

The two U.S. Navy boats and their crews – nine men and one woman – were detained on January 12 after entering Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf.

In December, Iran’s navy conducted rocket tests near U.S. warships and other commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

The two boats, both carrying weapons, had travelled more than a mile into Iranian territorial waters before they were stopped and the crew detained, reported Iran’s semi-official news outlet Fars.

Radio contact was lost with the two vessels – which USA officials said were riverine patrol boats under 65 feet (20 meters) in length – while they were en route from Kuwait to Bahrain. Kerry “personally engaged with Zarif on this issue to try to get to this outcome”.

“There are no indications that the Sailors were harmed during their brief detention”, according to a statement from the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs Office. Fadavi’s comments came after Revolutionary Guards spokesman Ramazan Sharif dismissed talks of their prompt release, saying that the American sailors were being interrogated.

Photos posted online by the Iranian News Agency show the US service members sitting shoeless on carpets in a room, leaning against cushions on a wall.

During a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry ensured the US boats has accidentally entered Iran’s waters.

The Guard’s Navy confiscated the sailors” Global Positioning System equipment to “prove that American ships were “snooping’ around in Iranian waters”, according to The New York Times.

The incident sparked a diplomatic crisis just before President Obama’s last State of the Union address Tuesday evening.

“There may have been mechanical failure on one of the vessels, but it is unclear at this time”, a defense official told VOA.

Fadavi also reportedly said that Tehran has asked Washington to apologize for “violating” Iran’s territorial waters.

In 2007 a similar incident occurred when 8 Royal Navy sailors and 7 Royal Marines were seized by the Iranian military while patrolling off the Iraqi coast.