--- title: Iran Seizes 10 U.S. Sailors description: Iranian officials said they were released on Wednesday canonical: https://time.com/4178087/iran-seizes-10-u-s-sailors/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-12T22:33:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T20:37:21.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Iran Seizes 10 U.S. Sailors og:description: Iranian officials said they would soon be released. og:url: https://time.com/4178087/iran-seizes-10-u-s-sailors/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae8c3db287e3f559/698878da5f570f498db1f299/bilde.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 640 og:image:height: 360 og:image:alt: bilde og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Iran Seizes 10 U.S. Sailors twitter:description: Iranian officials said they would soon be released. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae8c3db287e3f559/698878da5f570f498db1f299/bilde.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Iran's Seizure of 10 U.S. Sailors Is the Latest In a Series of Confrontations > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=3e4c7613-68cb-410d-a389-ad7e52978a81&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 8:37 PM UTCPublished: Jan 12, 2016 10:33 PM UTC  Iran seized a pair of riverine boats, like these shown in the Persian Gulf, and their 10 sailors on Jan. 12, 2016\. They were released the next day. Iran seized a pair of riverine boats, like these shown in the Persian Gulf, and their 10 sailors on Jan. 12, 2016\. They were released the next day. Mark Scovill—Army by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 8:37 PM UTCPublished: Jan 12, 2016 10:33 PM UTC Iran’s seizure of 10 U.S. Navy sailors aboard two small boats as they sailed from Kuwait to Bahrain is the latest in a series of confrontations carried out on the Persian Gulf between the two countries. “Earlier today, we lost contact with two small U.S. naval craft en route from Kuwait to Bahrain,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. “We subsequently have been in communication with Iranian authorities, who have informed us of the safety and well-being of our personnel. We have received assurances the sailors will promptly be allowed to continue their journey.” The sailors were released on Wednesday by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who said it was determined that their entry was not intentional. One of the boats may have had a mechanical problem that caused both to drift within 12 miles of Farsi Island, Iranian territory in the middle of the gulf, defense officials said. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Iranian officials by phone and received assurances that the sailors—nine men and one woman, according to an Iranian press report—would soon be released. The seizure, hours before President Obama delivers his final State of the Union address where he is likely to cite the recently concluded nuclear deal with Iran as a diplomatic success, is only the latest confrontation between Washington and Tehran. It comes two weeks after the Iranians fired several unguided rockets about 1,500 yards from the carrier USS Harry S. Truman and a pair of smaller U.S. and French warships in the Strait of Hormuz. That’s the bottleneck between the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea through which 17 million barrels of oil, 20% of world demand, flows daily. There were conflicting reports over whether the sailors were seized by the Iranian coast guard or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Revolutionary Guard is known to maintain a presence on the heavily-guarded three-square mile island. The Revolutionary Guards are sort of the wild card of the Iranian government. They are “generally loyal to Iran’s political hardliners and is clearly more politically influential than is Iran’s regular military,” according to a May report prepared for Congress. Its “political influence has grown sharply as the regime has relied on it to suppress dissent.” The trouble with any such action is that mistakes by either side could quickly turn violent. The USS Vincennes, erroneously thinking it was under attack, destroyed an Iranian airliner over the strait in 1988, killing all 290 aboard. That came on the heels of skirmishes that led the U.S. Navy to sink six Iranian vessels and the disabling of the USS Samuel B. Roberts by an Iranian mine. In 2007, Iran seized 15 British sailors and detained them for 13 days. Fathoming Tehran’s motives is always challenging. Iran has bridled under economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other nations due to its nuclear ambitions, although both sides struck a deal in October to delay them. Iran has always viewed the Persian Gulf as part of its neighborhood. 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