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Two Navy Seals are missing after falling into the water off the coast of Somalia while trying to board a vessel in the nighttime, officials said.
The two Seals, whose names were not publicly released, were climbing up a vessel in the Gulf of Aden when they got knocked off by waves.
Under their protocol, when one SEAL is overtaken, the next jumps in after them.
The men were on an interdiction mission — where members intercept weapons on ships that are bound for Houthi-controlled Yemen — when the waves overtook them, the officials said, according to reports.
The officials, who would only speak anonymously, would not detail the mission the missing Seals were on, but said it was not a part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, where the US and its allies are working to provide protection to commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
They also said the Seals’ work was not in relation to the Thursdaystrike against the Houthis by the United States and the United Kingdom.
Search and rescue teams are looking for the two soldiers. US Central Command declined to release more information until the effort is complete.
The Gulf of Aden is a hotspot for military activity as the Houthis have carried out two dozen attacks against commercial ships in the Gulf and Red Sea since mid-November.
Over the past two days, the US and UK carried out airstrikes on around 30 locations associated with the militant group.
President Joe Biden said Saturday that the US “privately” delivered a message to Iran, which backs Houthi, about backing their ship attacks.
“We delivered it privately and we’re confident we’re well prepared,” the president answered as he headed into Camp David.
On Friday, the US Navy destroyer USS Carney fired off a Tomahawk land missile that struck a radar owned by the militant group that was being used to target ships.
The attack was described as a “follow-on action…to degrade the Houthis’ ability to attack maritime vessels, including commercial vessels,” Central Command wrote on X.
On Thursday, American and British forces struck more than two dozen Houthi targets in Yemen.
Houthi has promised a strong and effective retaliation to the joint strike.
“This new strike will have a firm, strong, and effective response,” Houthi spokesperson Nasruldeen Amer told Al Jazeera.
With Post wires.
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