American battleships during a reconnaissance mission in the Red Sea (Reuters)
Two US Navy SEALs who went missing in the Gulf of Aden this month have not been located, and their status has been changed to "deceased," US military officials said on Sunday.
The US Central Command wrote on the X website that they were declared missing after boarding an Iranian ship.
The Washington Post reported on January 15, quoting American officials, that the two disappeared soldiers were searching on a ship for a shipment of weapons bound for the Houthi group in Yemen.
The newspaper explained that orders to carry out the dangerous boarding mission were issued the previous week after American officials suspected that a ship crossing the Gulf of Aden was transporting Iranian weapons to the Houthi group.
The two missing soldiers were preparing to board the ship amid the rough seas when one of them slipped from the ladder, according to what the newspaper quoted informed American officials as saying.
The officials, who requested to remain anonymous, added that when the second sailor saw his comrade falling into the water, he dived in to help.
When National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked about the operation, he described it as part of the US military’s ongoing work to disrupt Iranian arms shipments to Yemen.
Kirby sought to distinguish this activity from the US-led airstrikes that targeted Houthi facilities in Yemen on the same day, saying they were "not related."
According to the newspaper, the disappearance incident highlights the ongoing challenge facing the administration of US President Joe Biden and America's international partners, who pledged to hold the Houthis and Iran accountable for the sharp rise in attacks that have greatly disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters