MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2022) The United States has intercepted a ship that was allegedly smuggling 40 tonnes of urea fertilizer typically used in explosives from Iran to the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, the US Naval Forces Central Command said on Sunday.
"On Jan. 18, U.S. ships interdicted a stateless vessel in the Gulf of Oman caught smuggling illicit weapons last year. U.S. forces discovered 40 tons of urea fertilizer, a chemical compound... also known to be used as an explosive precursor," the command wrote on Twitter.
According to the navy, the ship was following a route "historically used to traffic weapons to the Houthis in Yemen." The vessel was intercepted in the Gulf of Oman.
On Tuesday, the US Naval Forces Central Command said that it had seized a record number of illegal cargo including drugs and weapons during maritime patrols in the Gulf region in 2021.
Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces, led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthi rebels. Since March 2015, the Saudi-led Arab alliance, working in cooperation with Hadi's forces, has been conducting air, land and sea operations against the Houthis. The alliance has suspected Iran of carrying arms to the rebels for a long time.
