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For years, the U.S. Navy and other Western naval forces have
seized Iranian arms being sent to the Houthis, who have held
Yemen's capital since 2014 and have been attacking ships in the
Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war.
The seizure announced Wednesday, however, marked the first major
interdiction conducted by the National Resistance Force, a group
of fighters allied to Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Yemen's late
strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Houthis and Iran did not immediately acknowledge the
seizure, which the National Resistance Force said happened in
late June.
A short video package released by the force appeared to show
anti-ship missiles, the same kinds used in the Houthis' recent
attacks that sank two ships in the Red Sea, killing at least
four people as others remain missing.
The footage also appeared to show Iranian-made Type 358
anti-aircraft missiles. The Houthis claim they downed 26 U.S.
MQ-9 drones over the past decade of the Yemen war, likely with
those missiles. The majority of those losses having been
acknowledged by the U.S. military.
The footage also appeared to show drone components, warheads and
other weapons. The force said it would release a detailed
statement in the coming hours.
Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured
weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments
heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi rebels despite a United
Nations arms embargo.
The Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and
forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A
Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence
entered the war on the side of Yemen’s exiled government in
March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting has pushed the Arab
world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters
and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian
disasters, killing tens of thousands more.
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