U.S. Navy says large weapons shipment from Iran to Yemen's Houthi rebels seized from "stateless" ship

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Navy said it seized a large cache of assault rifles and ammunition being smuggled by a fishing ship from Iran likely bound for war-ravaged Yemen.   U.S. Navy patrol ships discovered the weapons aboard what the Navy described as a stateless fishing vessel in an operation that began on Monday in the northern reaches of the Arabian Sea off Oman and Pakistan. Sailors boarded the vessel and found 1,400 Kalashnikov-style rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition, as well five Yemeni crew members.   It's just the latest interdiction amid the grinding civil war in Yemen that pits Iran-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led military coalition. Western nations and U.N. experts repeatedly have accused Iran of smuggling illicit weapons and technology into Yemen over the years, fueling the civil war and enabling the Houthis to fire missiles and drones into neighboring Saudi Arabia.   Iran denies arming the Houthis despite evidence to the contrary.

Al Qaeda has taken advantage of Yemen's chaotic civil war not only to survive, but to plan and carry out attacks on Americans and their allies. In September, CBS News correspondent Holly Williams got rare access to join Yemeni troops as they fight in the bloody conflict that gets so little attention, it's sometimes referred to as "the forgotten war."

In an unusually pointed move, the statement late Wednesday from the Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet blamed Iran for sending the weapons, saying the boat was sailing along a route "historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to the Houthis in Yemen."   "The direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of weapons to the Houthis violates U.N. Security Council Resolutions and U.S. sanctions," the statement added.   Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the interception.