The United States says thousands of machine guns and sniper rifles and more than 500,000 rounds of ammunition were seized from Iranian smugglers by U.S. Central Command.
The large collection of arms and ammunition, which was purportedly bound for Houthi militia in Yemen, was transferred to Ukrainian armed forces, U.S. Department of Justice said.
5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, and RPG-7s, and more than 500,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, were seized by U.S. Central Command and partner naval forces from four flagless vessels in the Arabian Sea. They were sailing from Iran to Yemen, where sanctioned groups including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directly support the Houthi movement.
The four large caches of conventional weapons, including long arms and anti-tank missiles and related munitions were either Iranian, Chinese, or Russian-made, according to the Department of Justice.
“With this weapons transfer, the United States government is both disrupting Iran’s destabilizing efforts and supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s brutal, unprovoked invasion,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
The HSI Washington Field Office and the DCIS Mid-Atlantic Field Office are leading the larger investigation of the Iranian weapons-smuggling network, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in conducting the seizures, DOJ said.
Copyright © 2024, RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
