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The military of the United States on Monday said the two Navy SEALs who went missing in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month have not been located and that their status had been changed to deceased.

The SEALs were reported missing after boarding an Iranian vessel, the US Central Command said on X.

“The search and rescue operation for the two Navy SEALs reported missing during the boarding of an illicit dhow carrying Iranian advanced conventional weapons Jan. 11 concluded and we are now conducting recovery operations. During this expansive search operation, airborne and naval platforms from the U.S., Japan, and Spain continuously searched more than 21,000 square miles to locate our missing teammates,” it said.

“Search assistance was also provided by Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, the U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command, University of San Diego – Scripts Institute of Oceanography, and the Office of Naval Research – Oceanographic Support. Out of respect for the families, no further information will be released at this time,” the US Central Command tweeted.

Earlier, the US military had said the Seals were lost while its naval forces were conducting a ‘flag verification’ of a dhow near the coast of Somalia.

It said commandos based on the USS Lewis Puller, which is classed as an expeditionary mobile base vessel, executed a ‘complex’ night-time boarding, with the support of helicopters and drones, and seized Iranian-made ballistic and cruise missile components.

According to earlier US reports citing defence officials, the Seals approached the dhow in small special operations combat boats.

As they were boarding the boat on high seas with 8ft (2.4-metre) swells, one Seal commando was knocked into the sea by a high wave and another dived in after him, following protocol for such an incident.