US sailors made navigational error, defense secretary says
Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday it appears a navigational error caused the crews of two Navy boats to stray into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf, where they were detained overnight by Iran and released.
“They obviously had misnavigated. ... That’s how they believe they ended up in this circumstance,” Carter said in an interview in Miami with Fusion network. “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 Iranian boats. ... We don’t know that fully yet.”
Carter later flew to Tampa to meet with leaders of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the U.S. military in the Middle East. At a news conference at Central Command headquarters, he declined to discuss the circumstances in more detail. He said it would be prudent to first finish debriefing all 10 returned sailors.
Asked his view of the video released by Iranian media showing the Americans kneeling aboard their boats with their hands on the heads, Carter said, “Obviously, I don’t like to see our people being detained by a foreign military.”