‘US sailors held captive by Iran at gunpoint’

All 4 prisoners fly out of Iran

The 10 US sailors who were briefly detained by the Iranian military last week were held at gunpoint and had a verbal exchange with Iranian personnel before they were released, the US military said Monday.

In its most comprehensive timeline of the incident to date, the US military the sailors also had two SIM cards pulled out of their satellite phones, but that there was no gunfire exchange. The US sailors, who were aboard two patrol craft, were detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on January 12 when they inadvertently entered Iranian territorial waters. They were released the next day.

Secretary of state John Kerry said on CNN that once he heard about the sailors’ detention, he was “very frustrated and angry”, and that “I raised it immediately with the Iranians.” He declined to give the content of his conversation, but said: “Suff-ice it to say that I made it crystal clear how serious this was. It was imperative to get it resolved.”

Three of the four US citizens freed by Iran in a prisoner swap have arrived in Germany, a US official said, where they were expected at an American military base. The released prisoners on Sunday landed in Germany after a brief stopover in Geneva. Among those on board was the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent Jason Rezaian, who had been detained in Iran for nearly 18 months.

The fourth prisoner, an American student released by Iran after 40 days in prison, has returned home to Massachusetts for a reunion with his family, the Boston Globe reported Monday.