clared as false published stories that she and her two companions were arrested inside Iraq by Iranian guards and dragged across the border into Iran. But she says an Iranian border guard gestured to the trio to come to him and when they did so told them they were then inside Iran.
Sarah Shourd telephoned The New York Times to describe the capture of the three on July 31, 2009.
Shourd, 32, said she wanted to correct erroneous reports of their arrest. A classified United States military report made public last week by WikiLeaks, and earlier American and British news reports quoting Kurdish sources all said the hikers were detained inside Iraq and forced across the border.
Shourd said that was wrong.
The United States State Department has never given public credence to any of the published reports suggesting the trio might have been arrested while inside Iran. It has always said it does not know how they were arrested.
State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley confirmed that Sunday, before Shourd spoke out. “We don’t know whether they had two feet on one side or the other, or one foot on each,” he said. “All we know is Iran has held them far too long.”
Shourd described for The New York Times what began as a relaxed trip to Kurdistan after reading on a website that it was safe and listening to a friend rave about the place.
Various Kurds suggested they visit Ahmed Awa, a waterfall where local people camp overnight. The hikers had no idea it abutted Iran, Shourd said, and twice encountered Kurdish peshmerga soldiers who greeted them warmly without warning them of any possible danger. The music and laughter around scores of campfires at the waterfall gave no sense of any danger.
The next day, they trekked up a dirt road passed the waterfall. A soldier with a rifle appeared on a ridge above them and gestured for them to keep climbing. He was the first person they saw on the mountain, Shourd said.
About 500 yards farther up, with no sign to indicate the border, a guard standing by a stone hut gestured for them to approach. A news report that a shot had been fired over their heads was wrong, she said.
When they approached the guard, “He pointed to the ground and said ‘Iran’ and pointed to the trail we had been on before he waved to us, then said ‘Iraq,’ ” Shourd said. “We did not actually enter Iran until he gestured to us. We were confused and worried and wanted to go back.”
At a second, larger structure, according to Shourd, more guards repeating in Persian, “Mushkil nadereh,” or “No problem,” blocked their attempt to run away and ignored their pleas to return to Iraq. Four days and several moves later they ended up in Evin prison.