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U.S. NEWSFriday 15 January 2016

Defense chief: US sailors made navigational error in Iran

LOLITA C. BALDOR time. It may be that they with their hands on the tary calls “reintegration,” in the Gulf for refueling on
ROBERT BURNS were trying to sort it out at heads, Carter said, “Obvi- a series of interviews and their way to Bahrain, one
Associated Press the time they encountered ously I don’t like to see our physical and mental health defense official said. GPS
TAMPA, Florida (AP) — De- Iranian boats. ... We don’t people being detained by examinations to ease their devices aboard the boats
fense Secretary Ash Carter know that fully yet,” he said. a foreign military.” return to duty. A Navy in- enabled the Navy to de-
said Thursday it appears a Carter later flew to Tampa He said this was the scene vestigation will ensue. termine, after the fact, that
navigational error caused to meet with leaders of U.S. as depicted by Iranian me- The Navy has given no indi- they were in Iranian waters,
the crews of two Navy Central Command, which dia and that he wants to cation that the 10 were in- but the Navy was not im-
jured or mistreated or that mediately sure whether the
Defense Secretary Ash Carter watches during a change of command ceremony, Thursday, Jan. the weapons or equipment crew members were safe
14, 2016, at U.S. Southern Command in Miami. Carter said Thursday it appears a navigational error aboard the boats were or had gone overboard.
caused the crews of two Navy boats to stray into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf, where they tampered with while in Ira- So a search-and-rescue
were detained overnight by Iran and released. nian custody. Gen. Lloyd operation was undertaken,
Austin, head of Central and at least one U.S. ship
(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) Command, said the equip- crossed into Iranian waters
ment is being inventoried. to look for the crew after
boats to stray into Iranian oversees the U.S. military in hear from the U.S. crews “For the most part ... the alerting the Iranian navy of
waters in the Persian Gulf, the Middle East. At a news before commenting fur- gear that we deployed with their intentions. The Iranians
where they were detained conference at Central ther. “We need to give was largely there when we did not interfere, the de-
overnight by Iran and re- Command headquarters, these guys the opportunity got the boats back. Wheth- fense official said.
leased. he declined to discuss the to tell us what was really er or not there are singular The officials were not au-
Carter said in an interview circumstances in more de- going on.” pieces of equipment miss- thorized to discuss the de-
in Miami with Fusion net- tail. He said it would be pru- Less than a day after being ing, we’ll determine that tails of the incident and
work that the crews mis- dent to first finish debriefing detained on Iran’s Farsi Is- once we’ve completed spoke on condition of ano-
navigated and that’s how all 10 returned sailors. land in the Gulf, the 10 U.S. the inventory,” he said. nymity. Secretary of State
they ended up in Iranian Asked his view of the video sailors were back with their A complete picture of what John Kerry used the per-
waters. released by Iranian media American fleet. Navy of- happened is unlikely to be sonal relationship he has
“They did not report this showing the Americans ficials said the 10 were available for days, but the formed with Iranian Foreign
navigational error at the kneeling aboard their boats undergoing what the mili- central cause for the crews’ Minister Mohammad Javad
entering Iranian waters was Zarif to work out the crews’
the navigational slip, which release. Kerry credited the
apparently was caused by quick resolution to the “crit-
human error rather than by ical role diplomacy plays in
an equipment malfunction, keeping our country secure
defense officials said. The and strong.”
boats, known as riverine Carter said the sailors were
command boats, were en not on a covert mission
route from Kuwait to Bah- and were simply making
rain. The navigational error their way from Kuwait to
cited by Carter was com- Bahrain, both on the west-
pounded by some sort of ern coast of the Gulf. They
engine trouble aboard one ended up in Iranian territo-
of the boats, another U.S. rial waters at least 50 miles
defense official said. The (80 kilometers) offshore and
engine problem did not were detained by the Ira-
cause the boats to go off nian military at Farsi Island,
course but apparently pre- which is home to an Iranian
vented them from evading naval base.
the Iranians once the crews Navy officials said the fami-
realized they were inside lies of the 10 crew mem-
Iran’s territorial waters. bers were kept abreast of
The Navy realized the boats developments once it was
were missing when they confirmed that the Iranians
failed to appear shipside were holding them.q