(CNN) — The Central Command of the US Army (Centcom) announced, on Wednesday, the seizure of an Iranian weapons shipment in the Gulf of Oman that was on its way to the Houthis in Yemen, last month.
According to the “Centcom” statement: “More than 3,000 assault rifles, 578,000 rounds of ammunition and 23 anti-tank guided missiles were seized last month.”
The statement added that US Central Command personnel “provided valuable information in a timely manner to the international forces that conducted the intercept operation.”
He added that the January 15 confiscation was “one of four interceptions over the past two months,” which prevented the transfer of more than 5,000 weapons and 1.6 million rounds of Iranian ammunition to the Houthis in Yemen.
It is noteworthy that the Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news of the arms seizure, and said that French special forces had confiscated weapons and ammunition from Iran that were on their way to the Houthis.
Fifth Fleet spokesman Tim Hawkins confirmed that the fleet assisted partner forces in the arms control operation, which took place in the Gulf of Oman on January 15th.
It is noteworthy that the confiscation process came only 5 days after the US Central Command announced the interception of a shipment of 2,116 Iranian assault rifles destined for Yemen.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, US Central Command also announced that Yemeni security forces had recently seized 100 drone engines destined for Houthi fighters, though the date of the operation was not specified.
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