US Navy seizes load of missile fuel going from Iran to Yemen
The 70-ton haul suggests the US Navy's yearslong game of cat-and-mouse with Iran-backed arms traffickers in the Gulf of Oman is beginning to pay off.
Jared Szuba
November 16, 2022
US Navy and Coast Guard ships operating in the Gulf of Oman interdicted a Yemen-bound fishing boat that had departed Iran laden with more than 70 tons of aluminum perchlorate, a chemical frequently used to make explosives as well as rocket and missile fuel.
US Coast Guard ship John Scheuerman and Navy guided missile destroyer USS The Sullivans intercepted the boat last week in international waters “along a route historically used to traffic weapons to the Houthis in Yemen,” the Navy announced today.
It took a week for US crew members and explosive ordnance disposal technicians to fully document the seized cargo, which also included more than 100 tons of urea fertilizer, a chemical also used in the early stages of manufacturing explosives.
“This was a massive amount of explosive material, enough to fuel more than a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles depending on the size,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of all US Navy forces in the Middle East, said in a statement today.
Read more:
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/11/us-navy-seizes-load-missile-fuel-going-iran-yemen#ixzz7kuB0Dn7l
