A pair of U.S. Navy SEALs who went missing in the middle of an operation to seize Iranian weapons from a vessel off the coast of Somalia have been declared deceased after more than a week of searching, according to military authorities.
“We regret to announce that after a 10-day exhaustive search, our two missing U.S. Navy SEALs have not been located and their status has been changed to deceased,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Sunday. Adding that it was “now conducting recovery operations,” the command said that no further information, including a timeline on releasing the sailors’ identities, would be immediately released “out of respect for the families.”
The two SEALs were reported as lost at sea during the Jan. 11 raid on an unflagged boat bound for Houthi forces in Yemen. A team was dispatched from a floating base, the U.S.S. Lewis B. Puller, to identify and board the vessel in the Arabian Sea when one of the sailors slipped from a ladder amid rough seas. Another, per protocol, dove in after his teammate, CNN reported earlier this week.
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CENTCOM said Sunday that teams from the U.S., Japan, and Spain had fruitlessly combed more than 21,000 square miles in an effort to find the SEALs.
A nighttime boarding mission—part of a naval tactic known as Visit, Board, Search and Seizure—is considered particularly high-risk by elite forces. One former SEAL told Task & Purpose recently that it was “the sketchiest thing I did in the teams.”
“Everything is slippery, it’s dark, everything is moving, it’s fucking cold so you can’t feel shit,” the veteran added.
“We mourn the loss of our two Naval Special Warfare warriors, and we will forever honor their sacrifice and example,” said Gen. Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command. “Our prayers are with the SEALs’ families, friends, the U.S. Navy and the entire Special Operations community during this time.”
The mission, which continued even after the two SEALs were swept away, resulted in the seizure of Iranian-made ballistic missile warheads and related components, CENTCOM said earlier this week.
