The United States Navy seized an arms shipment in the Arabian Sea that intelligence indicates was bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The shipment comprised of thousands of assault weapons, machine guns, and sniper rifles hidden aboard the ship.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the shipment came from Iran which again ties the Islamic Republic to arming the Houthis despite a United Nations arms embargo. The traditional ‘stateless’ dhow was intercepted in the northern reaches of the Arabian Sea off Oman and Pakistan.
The shipment includes nearly 3,000 Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, a variant of the Kalashniko, 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 seizure is one of the largest on the Gulf of Aden involving weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi Rebels who have instigated the conflict since 2014. Since 2015, the U.N. Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis. Despite that, U.N. 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.
