Text taken from Russian military correspondent Rybar.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] The search for missing US Navy SEALs continues for the third day in the Red Sea.
According to American media reports, citing some officials, two SEALs fell into the water during a night operation one after another.
The statement did not disclose what type of operation the sailors were conducting at the time. But they were "deployed to the US 5th Fleet (C5F) area of operations to support a wide range of missions."
CNN clarifies that the cause of the fall was “eight-foot waves,” and the second fighter jumped after the first in an attempt to save him.
And this casts some doubt on the circumstances of the incident.
Firstly, eight-foot waves (about 2.5 meters) are not unusual for the region at this time of year, although the human factor cannot be ruled out.
Secondly, the disappearance of the SEALs surprisingly coincided with a massive attack by the Yemeni Houthis. There is a lot of room for imagination here: up to the possibility of an American ship being hit as a result of return fire.
Another scenario could be an operation against Harakat al-Shabbab or the Somali branch of the Islamic State. Although in the latter case, the United States usually admits or at least partially publishes the circumstances of the incident in general terms.
In addition, one should not discount the attempt to land a special forces group on Yemeni territory. Not the entire coastline is controlled by the Houthis, but an agreement could be reached with UAE- or Saudi-controlled forces.
And the last likely scenario could be the legalization of losses in other crisis zones of the world. For example, you can drown in the Red Sea while staying in a Kharkov hotel.
It looks like the Houthis scored at least one hit on the American ship (which the Houthis claimed) and two people simply died there, while the ship itself maintained its course and continued to operate off the coast of Yemen.