US Navy ships operating under the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet interdicted tonnes of material known to be used as an “explosives precursor” from a stateless fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman.
An explosives precursor is a chemical substance that can be made into an explosive with relative ease, for instance, by mixing or blending with other substances, or by simple chemical processing.
“Guided-missile destroyer USS Cole and patrol coastal ship USS Chinook interdicted the stateless vessel transiting from Iran in waters outside of any state’s territorial sea along a route historically used to traffic weapons to the Houthis in Yemen,” said a Fifth Fleet statement yesterday.
During a flag verification boarding and subsequent search, 40 tonnes of urea fertiliser, a chemical compound with agricultural applications that is also known to be used as an explosive precursor, were found.
Following the interdiction last Tuesday, the US Navy transferred the vessel, cargo and five Yemeni crew members to Yemen Coast Guard officials on Friday.
“The vessel was the same stateless dhow interdicted in February last year off the coast of Somalia by guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S Churchill and discovered to be carrying weapons.”
Among the cache of weapons seized were thousands of AK-47 assault rifles, light machine guns, heavy sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and crew-served weapons.
Crew-served weapons include sniper rifles, anti-material rifles, machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, mortars, anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns, recoilless rifles, shoulder-launched missile weapons, and static anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
The inventory also included barrels, stocks, optical scopes and weapon systems.
US Navy assets deployed under the Fifth Fleet last month seized approximately 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition from a stateless fishing vessel with links to Iran sailing in the North Arabian Sea.
Nearly 8,700 illicit weapons were seized last year.
The Fifth Fleet area of operations encompasses approximately 2.5m square metres of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Strait of Bab Al Mandeb.
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