Major weapon shipment from Iran to Yemen intercepted by United States led naval coalition.

 

Thousands of weapons destined to Yemen confiscated by the United States. Fox News/US CENTCOM

A major weapon shipment from Iran to Yemen has been intercepted and confiscated by the United States led Naval coalition. Fox News. 3000 rifles along with 23 guided anti-tank missiles were found along with hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition. The weapons were captured on January 15th. A French warship stopped the ship carrying the weapons. The weapons were on their way to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Iran and Saudi Arabia have used Yemen as a proxy conflict with each other. 

Another view of the captured weapons. Fox News/US CENTCOM

My Comment:

I've got to be honest, I saw the pictures from this story and realized I had to write it up. I would love to have that many guns and if I could I would. Alas, I don't have anywhere near that much money. Besides, I'd want a bit more variety then we see here. They all seem to be AK variants.  

This is a pretty huge weapons seizure and the amount of weapons could have supplied quite a few troops. It's enough rifles to supply the Houthi rebels for quite some time. How useful those weapons would be for the Houthi's is unclear, given how low intensity the Yemen war has been lately. 

The missiles are a bit more concerning. A few rifles are not going to do much considering that Yemen was always flooded with weapons, but the missiles are a bit more rare. And they can be used to destroy tanks. That's a lot bigger threat in comparison. 

Still, the biggest problem for the Saudis is not a few service rifles and anti-tank missiles. It has been the ballistic missiles and drones that the Iranians have provided that have caused massive problems. The Houthis were regularly launching ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia and did quite a bit of damage to Saudi's oil industry. I haven't heard much about that lately but I am not sure if it is because the Houthis have ran out and Iran can't get them anymore or if it's because the media simply isn't covering it anymore. 

The war in Yemen is mostly an afterthought these days regardless. Most attention is now focused on the Ukraine-Russia war, and to be fair, that makes a lot of sense. The Yemen war might be a proxy conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but the Ukraine-Russia war is essentially a war between Russia and NATO. That's obviously a bit more important than a proxy war in the Middle East.