The U.S. military said on Sunday that two Navy SEALs who were reported missing earlier this month while on a mission near the coast of Somalia are considered deceased.
The SEALs went missing on January 11 while on a mission to board a ship holding Iranian weapons, according to a statement by U.S. Central Command.
CENTCOM reported a combined effort between the U.S., Japan, and Spain netted no finding following a search of over 21,000 square miles.
The missing sailors reportedly fell overboard during the attempted onboarding. One of the SEALs was knocked off the vessel by high waves. Per protocol, the next SEAL in line jumped in after him, leaving both lost in the Arabian Sea.
The announcement comes in the wake of growing tension in the Middle East.
What began as an isolated conflict between Hamas and Gaza in early October has grown into a regional war with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels operating out of Yemen attacking shipping lanes in the Red Sea. As reported last month in The Dallas Express, the U.S. responded by establishing Operation Prosperity Guardian, deploying military assets in the area to help protect commercial vessels.
More recently, the U.S. struck targets in Yemen, directed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin while he was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Medical Center.
However, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told Face the Nation last week that the latest incident is “not related to the strikes in Yemen.” Instead, he says this operation was among an ongoing strategy “to try to disrupt that flow of weapons supplies to Yemen.”
