A ship carrying explosives from Iran was stopped in the Gulf of Oman on a route frequently used by Houthi rebels in Yemen, the US Navy said on Tuesday.
According to the statement made by the Bahrain-based US 5th Fleet, the ship, which poses a “danger to commercial shipping”, was sunk in the Gulf of Oman on 13 November and its four Yemeni crew were dispatched to Yemen.
US forces found more than 70 tons of ammonium perchlorate and more than 100 tons of urea-based fertilizers, substances that can be used to make missile fuel, and explosives on board.
Vice Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command said this amount was “enough to power more than a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles, depending on their size.”
According to the statement, the ship was intercepted on 8 November “in transit through Iran on a route historically used to smuggle weapons to the Houthis.”
The Yemeni government, backed by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, accuses Iran of supporting the rebels, which Tehran denies.
Since 2014, the conflict in Yemen has killed hundreds of thousands of people and plunged the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
source: Noticias
