The US 5th Fleet intercepted a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman on November 8 that was smuggling lethal aid from Iran to Yemen, the Navy said in a press release on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2022) The US 5th Fleet intercepted a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman on November 8 that was smuggling lethal aid from Iran to Yemen, the Navy said in a press release on Monday.
"This was a massive amount of explosive material, enough to fuel more than a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles depending on the size," said Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command, US 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces.
The material in question included more than 70 tons of ammonium perchlorate, a powerful oxidizer commonly used to make rocket and missile fuel and explosives. This was the US 5th Fleet's first ever interdiction of ammonium perchlorate. The search also found more than 100 tons of urea fertilizer, which aside from agricultural applications, is used as an explosive precursor.
The vessel and its four Yemeni crew members were intercepted while transiting from Iran along a route historically used to traffic weapons to the Houthis in Yemen. The direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer of weapons to the Houthis violates UN Security Council Resolution 2216 and international law.
US forces sank the vessel in the Gulf of Oman on Sunday after determining it was a hazard to commercial shipping navigation. The four crew members were transferred to Yemen for repatriation Tuesday when USS The Sullivans completed an at-sea exchange in the Gulf of Aden with the Yemen Coast Guard.
