UK navy says it seized smuggled Iranian missiles
RIYADH (Reuters) – Britain’s Royal Navy mentioned on Thursday one in all its warships seized Iranian weapons, together with surface-to-air-missiles and engines for cruise missiles, from smugglers in worldwide waters south Iran earlier this 12 months.
A helicopter from the HMS Montrose frigate noticed speedboats shifting away from the Iranian coast on Jan. 28 and Feb. 25 and dozens of packages containing the superior weaponry had been confiscated, the Royal Navy mentioned in an announcement.
“The seized packages had been returned to the UK for technical evaluation which revealed that the cargo contained a number of rocket engines for the Iranian produced 351 land assault cruise missile and a batch of 358 surface-to-air missiles,” the assertion added.
The British assertion didn’t say the place the missiles had been sure, however mentioned the 351 cruise missile, with a variety of 1,000 kilometre, is commonly utilized by Yemen’s Houthi group to focus on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The Iranian authorities didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Houthi officers weren’t instantly accessible to remark.
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have been at warfare with the Iran-aligned Houthis since 2015, in a battle extensively seen as a proxy warfare between the 2 Western-backed Arab Gulf states and Iran.
United States Navy destroyer USS Gridley supported the February seizure, the Royal Navy mentioned. Each seizures occurred whereas HMS Montrose was on routine maritime safety operations, it added.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Parisa Hafezi, writing by Aziz El Yaakoubi)
