ABU DHABI, June 09 (TNS): Saudi led coalition on Tuesday displayed Irani weapons captured from Shiite rebels on the battlefield of a crucial Yamani port.
Weapons shown to reporters in Abu Dhabi and later at an Emirati military base on a government-sponsored tour included drones, a sniper rifle, roadside bombs disguised as rocks and even a “drone boat,” which had been filled with explosives that failed to detonate.
The officials showed Iranian-labeled components inside of equipment that they said was used to produce and load fuel for the rockets the rebels have fired across the border at Saudi Arabia. They also displayed images allegedly showing Iranian officials building components for the “drone boat.” The officials said such weapons threaten both coalition forces and civilians.
“Unsurprisingly, there are advanced military components in the Houthi militia’s hands,” said Talal al-Teneiji, an Emirati Foreign Affairs Ministry official, and added that they took time to inspect and disassemble these to figure out the source and can say that these elements are military-grade materials imported from Iran to the Houthi militias.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The rare show-and-tell by the Saudi-led coalition comes as the United Arab Emirates leads Yemeni forces in an offensive seeking to capture the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.
Their campaign has been criticized by international aid groups, which fear a protracted fight could force a shutdown of the port and potentially tip millions into starvation. Some 70 percent of Yemen’s food enters via the port, as well as the bulk of humanitarian aid and fuel supplies. Around two-thirds of the country’s population of 27 million relies on aid and 8.4 million are already at risk of starving.
The Houthi-controlled port has remained open, as the main battle Tuesday was around the city’s airport, to the south.
Some of the weapons shown have previously been described by U.N. weapons experts and an independent group called Conflict Armament Research, which gained access to the materiel through the UAE’s elite Presidential Guard. Among them were roadside bombs disguised as rocks that the research group has said bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by other Iran-backed fighters in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacture.
Already, the Saudi-led coalition has disarmed between 20,000 to 30,000 land mines and bombs, most laid indiscriminately by the Houthis, al-Teneiji said.
Other weapons on display Tuesday included a .50-caliber sniper rifle and mines. Officials also displayed a series of drones they said showed a growing sophistication by the insurgents, starting first with styrofoam models that could be built by hobby kit to one captured in April that closely resembled an Iranian-made drone.
Those advanced drones have been flown into the radar arrays of Saudi Arabia’s Patriot missile batteries, according to Conflict Armament Research, disabling them and allowing the Houthis to fire ballistic missiles into the kingdom unchallenged.
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Iran has been accused by the U.S. and the U.N. of supplying ballistic missile technology to the Houthis, something Tehran denies.
At a military base, the officials showed what they described as “dual-use” equipment that they believe was used to fuel Badr rockets, gear which they seized from smugglers in Yemen’s central Marib governorate. Inside one piece of equipment a component bore the name of Shokouh Electric, an Iranian firm. Another piece of the equipment bore the Farsi name and address of Mashal Kaveh, another Iranian company.
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Courtesy Associated Press
