The U.S. Navy says it seized about 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,000 rounds of ammunition from a fishing ship in the northern part of the Arabian Sea.
"The stateless vessel was assessed to have originated in Iran and transited international waters along a route historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to the Houthis in Yemen," the Navy’s 5th Fleet said in a statement Wednesday.
It said the crew of five people identified themselves as Yemeni and would be returned to Yemen, and that the U.S. Navy sank the vessel after determining it posed a hazard to commercial shipping navigation.
Western nations have accused Iran of smuggling arms into Yemen to aid the Houthis, which Iran denies.
The Houthis seized Yemen’s capital in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to launch a military operation backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
