US SEIZES ARMS HAUL IN GULF OF ADEN
▶ Navy spokesman says weapons found on dhow could exceed 1,000
The US Navy seized an unflagged boat in the Gulf of Aden believed to be smuggling a large weapons cache made up of hundreds of small arms, a US defence official confirmed on Thursday.
The seizure took place on Tuesday when US Navy forces on the USS Jason Dunham destroyer and stationed in the Gulf of Aden boarded the vessel and intercepted a large cache of small arms, including hundreds of AK-47s.
US officials said the boat was an unflagged traditional dhow and the number of weapons seized possibly exceeded 1,000.
“An investigation is under way to determine the origin of the boat and its destination,” a US official told The National.
The Gulf of Aden is a strategic location that connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean through Bab El Mandeb strait.
With Yemen located to the north and Somalia to the south, the Gulf of Aden has been used as a passage in the past to smuggle arms to those countries.
The US official said “we are tracking and analysing evidence and more information will be made available” once the investigation concludes.
The defence official declined to comment on the destination of the small vessel, but said that it was being investigated.
CNN, quoting US officials, pointed out “that ships intercepted in this area in the past have been linked to Iranian efforts to support Houthi rebels in Yemen”. Such interceptions by US forces occurred in 2015 and 2016 but have not taken place since then.
Observers said the incident featured elements similar to previous discoveries of weapons shipments heading for Yemen.
“We don’t have enough information to be sure of the dhow’s destination at this stage, but this certainly sounds similar to the 2015-2016 seizures,” Jeremy Binnie, the Middle East editor for Jane’s Defence Weekly, told The National. Four shipments to Yemen were seized during that period.
Mr Binnie said that “there was certainly evidence of Iranian weaponry reaching Yemen in the interim and there is both a large naval presence in the region and a UN Security Council resolution that enables any state to search vessels where
there is a reasonable suspicion”.
UN Resolution 2216, adopted in 2015, calls for all member states to “take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to” Yemeni armed groups, including the Iranbacked Houthi rebels.
Peter Salisbury, a senior fellow at Chatham House, said that “lots of arms get smuggled in and out of the Horn of Africa via the Gulf of Aden”.
“The US has been part of anti-piracy and antismuggling initiatives in the area for years, so this isn’t a new development,” he said.
Mr Salisbury said that, once revealed, the destination of the boat and its origin will reveal the significance of this interception.
Arms monitoring group Conflict Armament Research has issued several reports in the past three years, documenting evidence of Iran’s arming of the Houthis in Yemen through the Horn of Africa.