US sailors made ‘navigational error’ into Iranian waters

The Pentagon said on Thursday the 10 US sailors who were held by Iran before being released on Wednesday had made a navigational mistake that led them into Iranian waters.

“The information that they have given us, and through their commanders is that they did stray accidentally into Iranian waters due to a navigation error,” US defence secretary Ash Carter said. “So that seems to be the original cause of this, according to the interviews that we have done.”

Carter’s comments were the most detailed so far from US officials on the incident, which rattled nerves before the expected implementation of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Carter said the sailors apparently did not radio in to tell US commanders they were off course before encountering the Iranians.

“They did not report this navigational error at the time. It may be that they were trying to sort it out at the time they encountered the Iranian boats and discovered they were inside of the territorial waters of Iran,” Carter said.

– (Reuters)