MORE than 3,000 assault rifles, 578,000 rounds of ammunition and 23 advanced anti-tank guided missiles that were being shipped from Iran to Yemen have been seized in a major maritime interdiction.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) yesterday said that the weapons were confiscated in the Gulf of Oman by partner naval forces on January 15.
The US and its international partners have conducted four major maritime seizures over the last two months, all of which intercepted vessels carrying ammunition towards Yemen.
“Over the past two months alone, we and our partners have prevented more than 5,000 weapons and 1.6 million rounds of ammunition from reaching Yemen,” CENTCOM said in a statement yesterday.
The US Navy had last month intercepted a Yemeni-crewed fishing vessel carrying an illicit weapons shipment, including 2,116 AK-47 assault rifles ‘on a route historically used to traffic illicit cargo to the Houthis in Yemen’ through the Gulf of Oman.
“The direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of weapons to the Houthis violates UN Security Council Resolution 2216 and international law,” the Navy said at the time.
In 2021, CENTCOM prevented 9,000 illegal weapons from reaching Yemen, representing a 200 per cent increase in the number of arms seized over the previous year.
Last year, CENTCOM Maritime assets and partner forces seized weapons components for the same type of cruise missiles launched in attacks against Saudi Arabia and the UAE earlier in the year.
In December, US naval forces also seized explosive precursor materials that included 140 tonnes of urea fertiliser, 70 tonnes of ammonium perchlorate, and 50 tonnes of ammunition rounds, fuses, and propellants for rockets.
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