Dubai: The US Navy said it seized the large cache of assault rifles and ammunition smuggled by fishing vessels from Iran that might go to Yemen who was hit by a war.
US naval patrol ships found weapons above what the Navy described as a fishing vessel without citizenship in the operation that began on Monday in the northern Arab Ocean and Pakistan sea reach.
The sailor took the ship and found 1,400 Kalashnikov styles and 226,600 round ammunition, and five members of the Yemeni crew.
It was only the latest ban in the middle of the grinding war in Yemen which banned Houthi rebels supported by Iran against a Saudi-led military coalition.
Western nations and UN experts have repeatedly accused Iran to smuggle weapons and forbidden technology to Yemen for years, triggering civil war and allows Houthi to fire missiles and make drones to nearby Saudi Arabia.
Iran denies arming Houthi even though there is conflicting evidence.
In an extraordinary pointed movement, the final statement of Wednesday from the 5th fleet based on Bahrain from Navy blamed Iran for sending weapons, by saying a sailing boat along the route “historically used for unauthorized weapons traffic to Houthis in Yemen.” “Direct or indirect supply, sales or transfer of weapons to Houthi violate the resolution of the UN Security Council and US sanctions,” added the statement.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations does not immediately respond to requests for comments about interception.
The UN naval patrol ship transferred the confiscated weapons to the destroyer of the missile guided by USS O’Kane before drowning a fishing vessel because the “danger” posed with commercial shipments.
It was said that the Yemeni crew would be sent home.
American weapons seizures towards Yemen’s war, usually Kalashnikov rifles, engine guns and rocket-driven grenade launchers began in 2016 and continued occasionally.
Yemen is flooded with a small arm that has been smuggled into a less controlled port for years of conflict.
The 5th fleet of the Navy said it had confiscated around 8,700 prohibited weapons so far this year in the area of ​​2.5 million square miles of patrol, including very important red sea and Persian Gulf.
The Yemen war erupted in 2014, when Houthi won the capital Sanaa and most of the northern countries.
Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and other countries, launched a later month’s bombing campaign to restore internationally recognized governments and overthrow rebels.
The war has killed around 130,000 people and raises the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.