Two Navy sailors are missing at sea off the coast of Somalia, U.S. Central Command said via a statement Friday.
The brief statement gave no additional information about what the sailors had been doing when they went missing other than to say they were “forward-deployed” to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet area of operations and were “supporting a wide variety of missions.”
Specifically, search and rescue operations are currently ongoing, according to the statements. Additional details, including the ship, and the sailors’ names have not yet been released. The sailors were forward-deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet, according to the statement.
The U.S. has been operating more ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden over the last two months following a steady steam of attacks from Houthi forces in Yemen.
The search and rescue operations come at a time of heightened tension in the region amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the attacks by Houthis on commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Here’s the complete Central Command statement:
On the evening of January 11, two U.S. Navy Sailors were reported missing at sea while conducting operations off the coast of Somalia.
Search and rescue operations are currently ongoing to locate the two sailors. For operational security purposes, we will not release additional information until the personnel recovery operation is complete.
Out of respect for the families affected, we will not release further information on the missing personnel at this time.
The sailors were forward-deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet (C5F) area of operations supporting a wide variety of missions.
