An Iranian military official says 10 U.S. Navy sailors detained by Iran are expected to be released Wednesday, a day after they drifted into Iranian territorial waters.
State television quoted Gen. Ali Fadavi, the Navy chief of the Revolutionary Guard, saying a mechanical problem in the sailors' navigation system caused them to enter Iranian waters.
Fadavi said earlier that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call the U.S. should apologize for the incident.
The nine men and one woman were on two small vessels traveling in the Persian Gulf between Kuwait and Bahrain on Tuesday when U.S. controllers lost contact with them.
"There may have been mechanical failure on one of the vessels, but it is unclear at this time," a defense official told VOA. "My assumption is that they were in Iranian territorial waters when they were detained."