DoD and IRGC deny US troops captured in Iran

Earlier today, FARS News Agency claimed that seven US soldiers were detained inside Iran in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan. The report has since been withdrawn, and interestingly enough both the US Department of Defense and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and even Pakistan’s foreign minister, have denied the report. From Iran’s Press TV:

IRGC has rejected the reports as unfounded and says no US troops have been arrested.

“No American troop has been arrested. We deny it,” Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor of Sistan-Baluchestan Province, told the Arabic-language channel Al-Alam.

The Pentagon also denied arrest reports as false. “We have no missing soldiers. All accounted for,” AFP quoted Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell as saying.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told AFP that “There are no US soldiers there — the question of arrest does not arise.”

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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2 Comments

  • Spooky says:

    Seems like FARS went a bridge to far in trying to manufacture propaganda that even the IRGC had to deny it. That says something for journalistic irresponsibility in that region…

  • World Reader says:

    Interesting how the U.S., Iran and Pakistan’s [Statements] for all practical purposes are [Exactly the same.] As if ment to present a [Uni-fied Front.]
    Now there’s a First. And Why?
    Seem’s [Arrest] was used [one] to many times and is also the [Operative] Word here in these Official Releases.
    From Merriam Webster: [Arrest]
    2: seize, capture; specifically : to take or keep in custody by authority of law
    Now let us Try [Detain]: From Merriam Webster
    Definition of DETAIN
    1: to hold or keep in or as if in custody
    2obsolete : to keep back (as something due) : withhold
    3: to restrain especially from proceeding
    Sorry just don’t see that sort of [Mis-Take] being made. So who has a “FARS” connection to see were there’s a Job Opening?

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