US military officials announced on Sunday that two members of the Navy’s special forces, who went missing in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month, have not been located and their status has been updated to “deceased.”
The US Central Command posted on their website that the two were declared missing following their boarding of an Iranian ship.
The Washington Post reported on January 15, citing US officials, that the missing soldiers were searching a ship for a weapons shipment destined for the Houthi group in Yemen.
The newspaper detailed that the directive for the risky mission to board the ships was issued the preceding week after American officials suspected a vessel traversing the Gulf of Aden was transporting Iranian weapons to the Houthi group.
The missing soldiers were preparing to board the ship amidst tumultuous sea waves when one of them slipped off the ladder, according to the American newspaper, quoting informed officials.
The officials, who requested anonymity, added that the second sailor dove into the water to assist his colleague after seeing him fall.
When National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked about the operation, he described it as part of the ongoing efforts of the US military to disrupt Iranian arms shipments to Yemen.
Kirby sought to differentiate between this activity and the US-led airstrikes that targeted Houthi facilities in Yemen on the same day, stating that the two events “are not connected.”
As per The Washington Post, the disappearance incident highlights the ongoing challenge facing President Joe Biden’s administration and international partners committed to holding the Houthis and Tehran accountable for the significant uptick in attacks that have substantially disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
