US Navy’s Fifth Fleet holds onto colossal store of Russian and Chinese weapons that it said included Russian-made enemy of tank guided rockets, Chinese Type 56 attack rifles, Kalashnikov-style rifles, sharpshooter rifles, substantial automatic rifles, and rocket-pushed projectile launchers.
The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet has held onto a colossal reserve of “unlawful” Russian and Chinese weapons from a stateless dhow cruising in global waters of the North Arabian Sea.
US Navy says it has seized a huge cache of weapons hidden aboard a stateless dhow, a traditional Mideast sailing ship, in Arabian Seahttps://t.co/8qav9WjG7Y
— TRT World (@trtworld) May 9, 2021
The Fifth Fleet, which is situated in Bahrain, said on Sunday the guided-rocket cruiser USS Monterey blocked the vessel and found the payload during a normal boarding, in a two-day procedure on May 6-7.
“The reserve of weapons included many progressed Russian-made enemy of tank guided rockets, a large number of Chinese Type 56 attack rifles, and many PKM automatic weapons, expert rifleman rifles and rocket-impelled projectiles launchers,” it said in an articulation. The arms are in US guardianship and their source and planned objective is being scrutinized, it said.
Pentagon: Iran is the source of weapons shipped in the Arabian Sea
Tehran is helping to equip Houthis with weapons despite sanctions. The Pentagon said in a statement that preliminary investigations indicate that Iran is the source of the shipment of illegal weapons seized in the Arabian Sea.
According to the statement, a US Department of Defense official told the Associated Press that preliminary naval investigations revealed that the ship came from Iran.
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This shows once again that Tehran continues to supply weapons to Houthi militias despite international sanctions. The Iranian delegation refused to answer questions from the Associated Press. Tehran had repeatedly denied sending weapons to the Houthis.
Vessel delivered
The Fifth Fleet said the Monterey was inactivity for a day and a half, giving security to boarding groups. “After all illegal load was taken out, the dhow was surveyed for fitness for sailing, and subsequent to addressing, its team was given food and water prior to being delivered.”
The assertion didn’t show where the vessel may have come from, however, said the US Navy’s standard watches around there “disturb the vehicle of illegal payload that regularly subsidizes psychological warfare and unlawful movement”.
Yemen arms supply
The variety of arms on board the dhow reflected different shipments prohibited by the US and united powers in the area that later was portrayed to head Yemen, where Iranian-upheld Houthi rebels have been doing combating a Saudi-drove military alliance for control of the country since 2015.
Yemen is flooded with little arms that have been carried into inadequately controlled ports over long stretches of contention.
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The U.S. Navy seizes illegal shipments to ensure free trade and legal shipping, as these smuggled shipments often pay for terrorist and illegal activities.
In the past few years, there have been numerous reports of illegal shipments and arms smuggling in the Oman Sea and the Arabian Sea. In some cases, it has been reported that these arms shipments were sent by the Islamic Republic of Iran to the militias it supports, including Houthi militias in Yemen.
For example, in February 2019, US Central Command, Centcom, announced the seizure of an arms ship in the Arabian Sea, declaring that it was “Iranian weapons” and included 150 Dehlawiyeh anti-tank missiles and three surface-to-air missiles. It was then that the US Navy released a video of the seizure of a ship carrying Iranian weapons in the Arabian Sea.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted at the time that the shipment included “358 Iranian-made missiles and other military equipment parts” and was sent to Yemeni militias loyal to the Islamic Republic of Iran. have.