Updated 11.15am - The US military says 10 sailors briefly held by Iran are back in American care and "there are no indications that the sailors were harmed".

The US Navy issued a statement after Iranian state media announced the sailors had been freed.

It said the sailors departed the Iranian base on Farsi Island on the same boats that took them there. It said the Navy would conduct an investigation into the incident.

The nine men and one woman were held on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby yesterday.

The US military has said that mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, where they were picked up by Iran.