US military releases account of sailors’ Iran detention

January 19, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON

In its first official account of Iran’s seizure and subsequent release of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military said Monday the only items found missing from their two recovered boats were SIM cards for two satellite phones.

But key questions, such as why the sailors had deviated from their planned route to enter Iranian territorial waters, remain unanswered in the account released by U.S. Central Command. It’s calling the description a preliminary time line of the events of Jan. 12-13.

“A Navy command investigation initiated Jan. 14 will provide a more complete accounting of events,” Central Command said.

Bitter cold strikes upper Midwest

CHICAGO

The arctic air mass that froze water pipes in Minnesota this weekend is sticking around in some parts of the upper Midwest.

El Nino brought about a mild winter at the beginning, but a blast of dangerously cold temperatures moved east across the Northern Plains and Great Lakes on Sunday.

Temperatures bottomed out at 36 degrees below in Fosston in northwest Minnesota. Parts of Illinois were in the single digits Monday, the second day with such frigid air. It was the same in southern Indiana, where officials trying to stem the spread of a bird flu virus in turkey farms over the holiday weekend ran into problems when hoses that sprayed a poultry-suffocating foam froze.

Search finds rafts but no sign of 12 Marines after crash

HONOLULU

Authorities searching the area where two Marine helicopters crashed off Hawaii have found some life rafts that were carried aboard the aircraft, but still no sign of the 12 crew members who were on board.

The Coast Guard said Monday that three of the four life rafts confirmed to have been aboard the helicopters have been recovered, and efforts were being made to recover the fourth. Some of the rafts were inflated, but it was unclear how they came to be inflated, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers said.

There is no indication that anyone was aboard the rafts, based on their condition and the lack of any personal effects, she said.

Morocco arrests Belgian man linked to Paris attackers

RABAT, Morocco

Moroccan police have arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan descent, saying he is linked to the Islamic State group and had a “direct relationship” to the attackers who killed 130 people in Paris two months ago, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

The man had traveled to Syria with one of the Paris suicide bombers, where he received military training and built relationships with IS field commanders, “including the mastermind” of the Paris attacks, and others who threatened attacks in France and Belgium, the ministry said in a statement.

The statement identified the suspect only by the initials J.A., and didn’t explain his suspected relationship to the Paris attackers.

But Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt told The Associated Press the suspect’s name is Gelel Attar, a dual Belgian- Moroccan national previously convicted in Belgium of involvement with a terrorist group. The letters G and J are represented by the same letter in Arabic script.

Associated Press