The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized an arms shipment hidden aboard a vessel in the Arabian Sea, the latest such interdiction by sailors amid the long-running war in Yemen.
The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey discovered the weapons aboard what the Navy described as a stateless dhow, a traditional Mideast sailing ship, in an operation that began Thursday in the northern reaches of the Arabian Sea.
The weapons seized included Chinese-made, Kalashnikov-style assault rifles, sniper rifles, heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Plastic-wrapped weapons are seen on the deck of a stateless dhow that the U.S. Navy said carried a hidden arms shipment in the Arabian Sea on Friday, May 7, 2021. The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized the arms shipment hidden aboard the vessel in the Arabian Sea, the latest-such interdiction by sailors amid the long-running war in Yemen. (U.S. Navy via AP)
The Navy did not identify where it believed the shipment originated.
However, the assortment of arms aboard the dhows mirrored other shipments interdicted by the U.S. and allied forces in the region that later were described to be heading to Yemen, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been battling a Saudi-led military coalition for control of the country since 2015.
Yemen is awash with small arms that have been smuggled into poorly controlled ports over years of conflict.
Weapons that the U.S. Navy described as coming from a hidden arms shipment aboard a stateless dhow are seen aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey on Saturday, May 8, 2021. The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized the arms shipment hidden aboard the vessel in the Arabian Sea, the latest-such interdiction by sailors amid the long-running war in Yemen. (U.S. Navy via AP)