Two US Navy Seals declared dead after raid to seize Iranian weapons bound for Houthis

An image released by the US military shows what it says is a vessel carrying Iranian-made weapons bound for Yemen's Houthi rebels. Two US Navy Seals who went overboard during the mission have been declared dead. In November, Houthis began targeting ships in the Red Sea that they claimed were linked to Israel. Photograph: US Central Command/AP

Two US Navy Seals who went missing during an operation to seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been declared dead after a 10-day search failed to locate them, the US military has said.

US Central Command (Centcom) had previously said that two Seals who were reported as lost at sea were involved in the 11 January operation, in which the elite special operations personnel boarded a dhow off the coast of Somalia and seized missile components made in Iran.