The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet said Tuesday it had intercepted a fishing boat that was smuggling a “massive” amount of explosives as it transited from Iran along a route in the Gulf of Oman used to smuggle weapons into Yemen’s Houthi movements.
The Fifth Fleet said in a statement that the US military has found more than 70 tons of “ammonium perchlorate,” which is commonly used in the manufacture of rocket fuel as well as explosives.
The Saudi-led military coalition, which has been fighting the pro-Iranian Houthis in Yemen since 2015, has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying the group with weapons, which Tehran denies. “It was a huge amount of explosives, enough to fuel more than a dozen intermediate-range ballistic missiles,” said Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Naval Central Command, Fifth Fleet and Joint Maritime Forces. “The illegal transfer of deadly aid from Iran does not go unnoticed. This is irresponsible and dangerous and leads to violence and instability throughout the Middle East,” he added. Iran did not immediately comment on the allegation.
The Fifth Fleet reported that the intercepted ship was led by a crew of four Yemenis and was carrying 100 tons of urea fertilizer, which is used in agriculture and also to make explosives. He added that US troops sank the ship on Sunday in the Gulf of Oman because it posed a “danger to commercial shipping” and its crew was handed over to the Yemeni Coast Guard. And in December last year, the Fifth Fleet seized a shipment of rifles and ammunition on a fishing boat that they believed was from Iran and was on its way to supply the Houthis.
