Dhow raids reveal Iran’s supply line of sophisticated missiles to Yemen’s Houthis

USS Forrest Sherman seized "351" land attack cruise missiles that matched those used against the Aramco sites. (US Central Command)
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Updated 21 February 2020
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Dhow raids reveal Iran’s supply line of sophisticated missiles to Yemen’s Houthis

  • A "351" land-attack cruise missile matches weapon used to attack Aramco sites
  • US military raided two dhows in three months and found similar Iran-made weapons heading for Houthis

LONDON: Iranian cruise missile parts seized from a boat in the Arabian Sea matched those used in the attack on Saudi Aramco facilities, US military officials said.

The equipment was part of a shipment of sophisticated weaponry seized from a dhow in November destined for Houthi militants in Yemen. Another dhow carrying similar weapons was raided by the US Navy this month.

During a briefing Wednesday, Capt. Bill Urban of US Central Command, which is responsible for US forces in the Middle East, detailed the various missiles and other materiel discovered on the two boats.




One of the five, near-fully assembled Iranian-made "358" surface-to-air missiles.  (US Central Command)

The findings are the latest in an extensive body of evidence showing Iran supplying the Houthis with increasingly sophisticated weapons in breach of a UN arms embargo. They also show the extent to which Iranian weapons are being used to attack Saudi Arabia and other countries across the region.

Among the weapons found on board the dhow in November were anti-tank missiles, advanced “358” surface-to-air missiles and components used for land and sea cruise missiles, and drones, Urban said.

“This includes components of a ‘351’ land-attack cruise missile that matches the missiles used by Iran to attack the Aramco refineries in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last September,” he added.

The US believes the attacks on the Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oil field were launched from Iran rather than Yemen, contrary to a claim from the Houthis that they had mounted the attack. 

The UN and Saudi Arabia have also dismissed that the drone and cruise missile raid came from Yemen in the south and instead hit the targets in the Kingdom from the north.

The attacks, which Iran denied carrying out, temporarily cut off more than five percent of global oil supplies.




Weapons seized by the USS Normandy in February included anti-­tank weapons, surface-to-air missiles, and various electronic components for unmanned systems. (US Central Command)

The surface-to-air missiles seized in the November raid carried out by the USS Forrest Sherman also included links to the Aramco attacks. The weapons contained high-tech components that matched those in the drones used to attack the facilities.

The independent Conflict Armament Research made similar findings in a report published Wednesday that linked the drones used in the Aramco attack to Houthi drones in Yemen and Iranian drones recovered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Urban said the second dhow intercepted on Feb. 9 by the USS Normandy found 150 “Dhelavieh,” anti-tank guided missiles that are Iranian copies of the Russian Kornet. They also found three more of the “358” surface-to-air missiles, he said.

A US military official told the New York Times that the new weapon is designed to avoid US defensive systems and can shoot down military helicopters.

Iran has been smuggling weapons to the Houthis for at least five years since the Arab coalition, which includes Saudi Arabia, launched an operation to support Yemen’s internationally recognized government after the militia seized the capital Sanaa.

The increasing sophistication of the weapons will add to concerns that Iran is stoking the conflict as the UN attempts to broker a political solution.

“There is no doubt as to where these weapons came from or where they were going,” Urban said. “For the international community, the supply of Iranian weapons to the Houthis has often led to spillage of the Yemeni conflict beyond its borders.

“For the people of Yemen, the continual supply of Iranian weapons to the Houthis has certainly prolonged the conflict, delayed a political solution and increased the suffering of the Yemeni people.”


France condemns Syria violence targeting ‘civilians’

Updated 58 min 15 sec ago
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France condemns Syria violence targeting ‘civilians’

  • A French foreign ministry statement called on Syria’s new authorities to ensure independent investigations

PARIS: France on Saturday condemned violence in the Syrian Arab Republic targeting “civilians because of their faith, and prisoners,” as a war monitor said more than 500 Alawites have been killed in recent days.
A French foreign ministry statement called on Syria’s new authorities “to ensure that independent investigations can shed light on these crimes, and that the perpetrators are sentenced.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday reported that 532 Alawite civilians were killed in Syria “by security forces and allied groups.”
The Alawites are a religious minority to which toppled president Bashar Assad belongs.
The wave of violence targeting them follows a rebel coalition led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) seizing power in December. After its victory, HTS had vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.


‘Alarming regression’ in South Sudan, UN warns

Updated 08 March 2025
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‘Alarming regression’ in South Sudan, UN warns

  • The chair of the UN commission, Yasmin Sooka, said South Sudan was “witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress“
  • “Rather than fueling division and conflict, leaders must urgently refocus on the peace process”

NAIROBI: South Sudan is in “alarming regression” as clashes in recent weeks in the northeast threaten to undo years of progress toward peace, the UN commission on human rights in the country warned on Saturday.
A fragile power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar has been put in peril by the clashes between their allied forces in the country’s Upper Nile State.
On Friday, a UN helicopter attempting to rescue soldiers in the state was attacked, killing one crew member and wounding two others.
An army general was also killed in the failed rescue mission, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said Friday.
The incident sent shudders through the young and impoverished nation, long plagued by political instability and violence.
Kiir late Friday urged calm and pledged no return to war.
In a statement on Saturday, the chair of the UN commission, Yasmin Sooka, said South Sudan was “witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress.”
“Rather than fueling division and conflict, leaders must urgently refocus on the peace process, uphold the human rights of South Sudanese citizens, and ensure a smooth transition to democracy,” she said.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, ended a five-year civil war in 2018 with the power-sharing agreement between bitter rivals Kiir and Machar.
But Kiir’s allies have accused Machar’s forces of fomenting unrest in Nasir County, in Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of armed youths in the region from the same ethnic Nuer community as the vice president.
“What we are witnessing now is a return to the reckless power struggles that have devastated the country in the past,” commissioner Barney Afako said in the UN Commission statement.
He added that the South Sudanese had endured “atrocities, rights violations which amount to serious crimes, economic mismanagement, and ever worsening security.”
“They deserve respite and peace, not another cycle of war.”


Israeli airstrike kills two in southern Gaza amid push for Gaza ceasefire extension

Updated 08 March 2025
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Israeli airstrike kills two in southern Gaza amid push for Gaza ceasefire extension

  • The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a drone that crossed from Israel into southern Gaza and “several suspects” who tried to collect it

CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, medical sources said, as mediators pushed ahead with talks to extend a shaky 42-day ceasefire agreed in January between Israel and Hamas.
The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a drone that crossed from Israel into southern Gaza and “several suspects” who tried to collect it in what appeared to be a botched smuggling attempt.
The strike comes one day after an Israeli drone strike killed two people in Gaza on Friday. The Israeli military said it attacked a group of suspected militants operating near its troops in northern Gaza and planting an explosive device in the ground.
The fresh attacks come as a delegation from Hamas engages in ceasefire talks in Cairo with Egyptian mediators who have been helping facilitate the talks along with officials from Qatar, aiming to proceed to the next stage of the deal, which could open the way to ending the war.


2 days of clashes and revenge killings in Syria leave more than 600 people dead

Updated 08 March 2025
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2 days of clashes and revenge killings in Syria leave more than 600 people dead

  • Syrian government says they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence.
  • Residents of Baniyas describe bodies strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on roofs of buildings

BEIRUT: The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 600, a war monitoring group said Saturday, making it one of the deadliest acts of violence since Syria’s conflict began 14 years ago.
The clashes, which erupted Thursday, marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power.
The government has said that they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence.
The revenge killings that started Friday by Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect are a major blow to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the faction that led the overthrow of the former government. Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base for decades.
Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to The Associated Press about killings during which gunmen shot Alawites, the majority of them men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP from their hideouts.
They asked that their names not be made public out of fear of being killed by gunmen, adding that thousands of people have fled to nearby mountains for safety.
Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, said bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, and nobody was able to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors killed Friday at close range.
Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, said that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.
Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad’s government. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters, and militants from neighboring villages and towns.
“It was very very bad. Bodies were on the streets,” as he was fleeing, Sheha said, speaking by phone from nearly 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from the city. He said the gunmen were gathering less than 100 meters from his apartment building, firing randomly at homes and residents and in at least one incident he knows of, asked residents for their IDs to check their religion and their sect before killing them. He said the gunmen also burned some homes and stole cars and robbed homes.
Death toll has tripled
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said that 428 Alawites have been killed in revenge attacks in addition to 120 pro-Assad fighters and 89 from security forces. The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said that revenge killings stopped early Saturday.
“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said about the killings of Alawite civilians.
The previous figure given by the group was more than 200 dead. No official figures have been released.
A funeral was held Saturday afternoon for four Syrian security force members in the northwestern village of Al-Janoudiya after they were killed in the clashes along Syria’s coast. Scores of people attended the funeral.
Official reports say Syrian forces regaining control
Syria’s state news agency quoted an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying that government forces have regained control of much of the areas from Assad loyalists. It added that authorities have closed all roads leading to the coastal region “to prevent violations and gradually restore stability.”
On Saturday morning, the bodies of 31 people killed in revenge attacks the day before in the central village of Tuwaym were laid to rest in a mass grave, residents said. Those killed included nine children and four women, the residents said, sending the AP photos of the bodies draped in white cloth as they were lined in the mass grave.
Lebanese legislator Haidar Nasser, who holds one of the two seats allocated to the Alawite sect in parliament, said that people were fleeing from Syria for safety in Lebanon. He said he didn’t have exact numbers.
Nasser said that many people were sheltering at the Russian air base in Hmeimim, Syria, adding that the international community should protect Alawites who are Syrian citizens loyal to their country. He said that since Assad’s fall, many Alawites were fired from their jobs and some former soldiers who reconciled with the new authorities were killed.
Under Assad, Alawites held top posts in the army and security agencies. The new government has blamed his loyalists for attacks against the country’s new security forces over the past several weeks.
The most recent clashes started when government forces tried to detain a wanted person near the coastal city of Jableh, and were ambushed by Assad loyalists, according to the Observatory.


One dead as Israel army says strikes Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon

Updated 08 March 2025
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One dead as Israel army says strikes Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon

  • Lebanese media reports one killed and another wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a car

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it targeted a Hezbollah militant with an air strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday, as Lebanese media reported one killed and another wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a car.
“A short while ago, the IAF (air force) struck a Hezbollah terrorist who was engaged in re-establishing terrorist infrastructure and directing Hezbollah terror activities in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
“The IDF will continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel and will prevent any attempt by Hezbollah to rebuild itself.”
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported one killed and one wounded in an “Israeli drone strike” on a car in the southern village of Kherbet Selm, citing the health ministry.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it had conducted “intelligence-based strikes” on Hezbollah military sites in southern Lebanon, “in which weapons and rocket launchers belonging to Hezbollah were identified.”
It said the weapons “posed a threat to the State of Israel and constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
A November 27 truce largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war in which Israel sent in ground troops.
Israel has continued to carry out periodic strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.
Israel had been due to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems “strategic.”
The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.