Updated 01/13/24 at 5:14 p.m
Two U.S. Navy personnel have been missing off the coast of Somalia since Thursday evening, the U.S. military said in a statement on Friday.
“A search and rescue operation is underway to locate the two sailors. For operational security reasons, we will not release any further information until the rescue mission is complete,” the US Army command said.
From the base in Djibouti
Both sailors are deployed with the United States 5th Fleet, which operates in a wide area including the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean. The headquarters are in Manama, Bahrain.
The American army, which has a base in Djibouti, has been conducting operations in Somalia for several years in cooperation with the regular Somali army and on behalf of the government.
These are primarily air strikes against the radical Islamist Shebab, who is linked to Al-Qaeda.
Shebab in the viewfinder
In mid-December, a major Shebab commander blamed for a 2020 attack on an American-Kenyan military base in eastern Kenya was killed in an American airstrike, according to the army, according to the federal government of Somalia.
Shebab has been fighting against the Somali federal government for more than 16 years with the support of the international community. They have been considered a terrorist group in Washington since 2008.