Featured Image: The seized cache of arms and weapons laid out on the deck of the USS Monterey. Credits: Twitter/US 5th Fleet
The US Navy announced on Sunday that it seized an arms shipment of thousands of assault weapons, machine guns and sniper rifles hidden aboard a ship in the Arabian Sea, apparently bound for Yemen to support the country’s Houthi rebels.
According to a US defence official, the Navy’s initial investigation found that the vessel came from Iran, again tying the Islamic Republic to arming the Houthis despite a United Nations arms embargo. Tehran has denied giving the rebels weapons in the past and has not yet commented on the US’ new allegation.
The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey discovered the weapons aboard “a stateless dhow” in an operation that began Thursday in the northern reaches of the Arabian Sea off Oman and Pakistan. A dhow is a traditional Mideast sailing ship. US sailors boarded the vessel and found the weapons, most of them wrapped in green plastic, below deck.
When laid out on the deck of the Monterey, the scale of the find was revealed.
Sailors found nearly 3,000 Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, a variant of the Kalashnikov. They recovered hundreds of other heavy machine guns and sniper rifles, as well as dozens of advanced, Russian-made anti-tank guided missiles. The shipments also included several hundred rocket-propelled grenade launchers and optical sights for weapons.
The Navy’s Mideast-based Fifth Fleet did not identify where the weapons originated, nor where they were going. However, an American defense official said the weapons resembled those of other shipments interdicted bounded for the Houthis.
Based on interviews with the crew and material investigated on board, the sailors determined that the vessel came from Iran, said the anonymous official.
“After all illicit cargo was removed, the dhow was assessed for seaworthiness, and after questioning, its crew was provided food and water before being released,” the Fifth Fleet said in a statement.
The seizure marks just the latest in the Arabian Sea or Gulf of Aden involving weapons likely bound to Yemen. The seizures began in 2016 and have continued intermittently throughout the war, which has seen the Houthis fire ballistic missiles and use drones later linked to Iran. Yemen is awash with small arms that have been smuggled into poorly controlled ports over years of conflict.
This recent seizure appeared to be among the biggest.
“The unique blend of materiel recovered by the USS Monterey appears to be consistent with the materiel from previous interdictions, which have been linked to Iran,” said Tim Michetti, an investigative researcher who studies the illicit weapon trade.
Since 2015, the UN Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis. Despite that, UN experts warn “an increasing body of evidence suggests that individuals or entities in the Islamic Republic of Iran supply significant volumes of weapons and components to the Houthis.”
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.