Iran Captured U.S. Sailors at Gunpoint, Defense Department Finds
- Central Command releases timeline of events in Persian Gulf
- Iranians used machine guns for `armed over-watch' of boats
An Iranian national flag flies from a flagpole in a residential district of Tehran on Aug. 24, 2015.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Ten U.S. sailors detained by Iran last week were taken at gunpoint after straying into Iranian waters, the Defense Department said in the first formal account of the confrontation in the Persian Gulf.
“Armed Iranian military personnel” boarded the U.S. boats while others “conducted armed over-watch of the boats with mounted machine guns,” U.S. Central Command said in the preliminary report issued Monday.