US Navy seizes guns it says heading from Iran to Yemen

Manama: The US Navy has seized 1,400 AK-47 rifles and ammunition from a fishing boat it claimed was smuggling weapons from Iran to Huthi rebels in war-torn Yemen.

US Naval Forces Central Command, or NAVCENT, said it boarded the boat on December 20 in the North Arabian Sea, seized the weapons cache and five crew members -- who identified themselves as Yemeni -- before scuttling the vessel.

Yemen has been wracked by civil war since 2014, pitting Iran-backed Huthi rebels against the internationally-recognised government. "US 5th Fleet ships seized approximately 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition from a stateless fishing vessel," a US navy statement Wednesday read.

"The stateless vessel was assessed to have originated in Iran and transited international waters along a route historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to the Huthis in Yemen." The Bahrain-based US 5th Fleet has seized approximately 8,700 illicit weapons this year.

The United States as well as ally Saudi Arabia -- which is leading the military coalition backing the Yemeni government against the rebels -- have long accused Iran of supplying the Huthis with weapons, a charge Tehran denies.