Navy SEALS lost off Somali coast were searching for Iranian weapons shipment to Yemen

The Navy SEALs who were lost at sea on Thursday had been searching for a suspected Iranian weapons shipment that was set to go to Yemen.  

During the nighttime mission, one SEAL was knocked off a boat in the rough seas and another went in after him. They are still yet to be found.  

They had been searching a small boat for suspected weaponry being shipped by Iran to Yemen, according to officials familiar with the incident.  

When John Kirby was asked about the mission on Sunday, he described it as part of the United States' ongoing pressure on Iran to disrupt shipments to the region.  

The two SEALs have not been found as of Monday afternoon and American ships and aircraft have been searching for them after the mission.  

A US defense official told the Associated Press on Monday that the crew had been intercepting a ship called a dhow which did not have an identifiable flag on board.  

The Navy recognized the boat as one that had transported illegal weapons before and decided to intercept the shipment. The SEALs had been aboard the USS Lewis B. Puller, a Naval expeditionary sea base vessel, and were transported to the small operations craft to get to the boat.  

One of the SEALs got knocked off into the waters at around 8 p.m. local time.  

The crew aboard the dhow numbered about a dozen, and were all taken into custody. All the weapons on board were confiscated by the Navy, and the boat was sunk. 

Officials report the mission was not tired with Operation Prosperity Guardian, the ongoing U.S. and world mission to protect commercial vessels in the Red Sea, nor the strikes that the U.S. along with the United Kingdom have launched in Yemen over the past two days.