The 10 U.S. Navy sailors who were held by Iran after one of their vessels drifted into Iranian waters were told to “act happy” while they were being filmed during their detention, a U.S. defense official with the latest information on the incident told CNN.
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The officials were not authorized to discuss the details of the incident and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. commander under fire for apologizing to Iran suggested he felt pressured by his captors to talk on video about how well the 10 U.S. Navy sailors being held by the Persian Gulf country were treated. “(And if you don’t think Iran is in a state of armed conflict against the United States, tell that to the families of hundreds of American soldiers who’ve lost their lives to Iranians and Iranian-backed terrorists.)”, he wrote. The sailors were released after State Department intervention, though videos of Iranians commandeering the boats and later getting an apology from one of the sailors have since caused headaches for Washington. So a search-and-rescue operation was undertaken, and at least one US ship crossed into Iranian waters to look for the crew after alerting the Iranian navy of their intentions.
Carter, speaking at a news conference in Florida, deflected questions on whether Iran had breached the Geneva Convention by showing images of the captured sailors.
“We’re not going to take their word for it”, Earnest said. The release of the money could have been delayed if the sailors were not quickly released.
While the sailors appear to be fine physically they are “tired and upset” about what happened, according to the official.
“All the contributing factors to that, we don’t know yet and we’re still talking to those folks and we’ll find out more what combination of factors led to that navigational error”, said the Pentagon chief.
The boats were small riverine craft on a routine trip from Kuwait to Bahrain, the Navy said.
The navigation error was compounded by some sort of engine trouble aboard one of the boats, defense officials said.
The U.S. Navy has initial statements from the sailors but is now conducting a full debrief, so additional information may come to light, the official said.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said resolution of the incident was a success for diplomacy, and Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he was grateful to have the service members “back in our hands”.
