The incident occurred near Farsi Island, where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has a naval base.
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The Riverine boats were not part of the carrier strike group, and were on a training mission, the officials said.
The video depicts seized weapons and ammunition laid out on a platform and scenes from inside a boat, including shots of a U.S. Navy uniform, a storage room and racks of equipment, along with a scene of an Iranian officer in a green beret and fatigues examining a document as he sits in a pilot’s chair. The sole woman had her hair covered by a brown cloth.
The images show the US sailors with their hands on their heads, while others show Iranians inspecting the machine guns onboard and going through papers.
Iran freed ten U.S. sailors on Wednesday a day after detaining them aboard two U.S. Navy patrol boats in the Gulf, bringing a swift end to an incident that had rattled nerves shortly before the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord.
In a statement, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Command said that “the USA combat vessels’ illegal entry into the Islamic Republic of Iran’s waters was the result of an unintentional action and a mistake, and after they extended an apology, the decision was made to release them”.
“Today’s outcome is a good reminder that this diplomatic engagement, which has been the target of some criticism, actually does advance the interests of the United States and our national security”, Earnest said. But White House officials said the USA administration had not issued an apology to Iran.
The two Navy boats experienced mechanical problems and accidentally entered the country’s territorial waters, US officials said.
Iran’s armed forces chief, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, said the incident should demonstrate Iranian strength to “troublemakers” in the US Congress, which has sought to put pressure on Iran after the nuclear deal.
Commander Kevin Stephens, a 5th Fleet spokesman, said the priority now would be determining “how exactly these sailors found themselves in Iran”.
The Guard’s 200,000-strong force is different from the regular Iranian military and is charged with protecting the ruling system.
According to the Navy and the Pentagon, the two boats were enroute from Kuwait to Bahrain when one of them foundered – either because of running out of fuel or engine problems.
U.S. President Barack Obama did not mention the situation in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday, but he did mention a nuclear agreement reached past year between Tehran and Western powers, saying “the world has avoided another war”.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter thanked Secretary of State John Kerry, whom he said played an instrumental role in securing the safe release of the sailors. Kerry “personally engaged” with Zarif on the issue, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
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U.S. officials had said one or both of the boats experienced mechanical problems and they had been taken to Farsi Island, which lies roughly midway between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Gulf and houses a base of the Guards, which has its own naval units. “If they weren’t getting that, you would have never seen them – until I became president and then they would have released them early”.
