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Navy aids Red Sea volcano rescue

The destroyer Bainbridge and five other ships from a NATO maritime group are aiding rescue efforts off the coast of the tiny island of Jabal al-Tair, where a volcano erupted over the weekend.

The island sits in the Red Sea about 70 miles off the coast of Yemen. It has a small military base but is otherwise uninhabited. The Yemeni coast guard and navy evacuated 21 of the 29 personnel on the island, but eight were found to be missing.

Rear Adm. Michael Mahon, who commands NATO Maritime Task Group 1, told Navy Times Monday that the Yemeni government requested the help of the six-ship fleet which was steaming toward the Suez Canal when the volcano occurred.

Initially, sailors onboard the Bainbridge, the task group’s flagship, spotted two bodies in the water, while the Canadian frigate Toronto picked up another body, Mahon said

Two soldiers were rescued, while four others were found dead. The search for the two other missing soldiers is ongoing, Mahon noted.

A Canadian Navy spokesman who was onboard the Toronto called the volcanic eruption “catastrophic,” the Associated Press reported.

Jabal al-Tair, or “Bird Mountain,” is one of a number of volcanic islands in the Red Sea between Yemen and Sudan.

Mahon praised the efforts of the NATO-tasked sailors in the rescue effort and said the task group will continue the search as long as it is deemed necessary.