Monitoring Desk
DUBAI: The United States (US) Navy seized more than 2,100 rifles from a ship in the Gulf of Oman it believes came from Iran and were bound for Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, a Navy spokesman claimed on Tuesday.
US Navy
Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet told the Associated Press that they took possession of the arms. The spokesman claimed that the arms resembled other assault rifles previously seized by them, suspected to be from Iran and heading to Yemen.
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Hawkins said that when they intercepted the boat, it was on a route historically used to traffic illicit cargo to the Houthis in Yemen.
A UN arms embargo had prohibited arms transfers to the Houthis since 2014 when civil war erupted in Yemen. Tehran has long dismissed arming the Houthis. Iran’s mission to the UN did not immediately respond to the matter on Tuesday.
