Two Members Of The US Navy SEAL Missing During Operations Off Somali Beach Declared Dead

Illustration of US Navy SEAL personnel. (Wikimedia Commons/US Defense Department)

JAKARTA - Two members of the United States special forces from the Navy SEAL who have been missing off the coast of Somalia since January 11, were declared dead after a 10-day search, US CENTCOM said.

"We regret to announce that after a 10-day thorough search, our two missing US Navy SEALs have not been found and their status has been changed to death," US CENTCOM said in a statement on Sunday.

"To honor the family, no further information will be released at this time," the US CENTCOM added.

The US CENTCOM further explained that a joint team from the United States, Japan and Spain had previously conducted searches in an area of more than 21,000 square miles to find the two special forces of Uncle Sam's country.

CNN previously reported that the two members of the Navy SEAL were boarding a ship looking for Iran's banned weapons, when one of them fell into the water due to an eight-foot high wave. According to protocol, the colleague then jumped into the water to follow suit.

"We mourn the loss of two of our Navy's Special War soldiers, and we will forever honor their sacrifices and role models. Our prayers accompany family, friends, US Navy and the entire Special Operations community SEAL during this time," said US CENTCOM Commander General Michael Erik Kurila.

"We mourn the loss of our two brave Navy SEAL members, and our hearts are on their families," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement on Sunday.

"The whole Department is united in grief today. We thank all those who work tirelessly to try to find and save them."

It is known that Uncle Sam's country maintains a small military presence in Somalia, which focuses on the threat of the Al-Shabaab militant group, an extremist organization that carried out an attack on the Somali Government, labeled a terrorist organization by Washington.

In addition to training Somali troops, the US has also coordinated with the Somali Government to carry out attacks on Al-Shabaab.

According to US African Command, "Al-Shabaab is the largest and most kineticly active Al-Qaeda network in the world, proving its will and ability to attack US troops and threaten the country's security interests."