The Yemeni National Resistance Forces successfully interdicted a “massive” shipment of advanced Iranian weapons that were intended for the Houthis.
The U.S.’s Yemeni partners said it seized more than 750 tons of weapons, including hundreds of advanced cruise, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles, warheads, and hundreds of drone engines, air defense equipment, radar systems, and more, according to U.S. Central Command.
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CENTCOM said NRF personnel found instruction manuals in Farsi, and many of the weapons systems were manufactured by a company sanctioned by the United States and affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Defense.
“We commend the legitimate government forces of Yemen who continue to interdict the flow of Iranian munitions bound for the Houthis,” Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the commander of CENTCOM, said in a statement. “The interdiction of this massive Iranian shipment shows that Iran remains the most destabilizing actor in the region. Limiting the free flow of Iranian support to the Houthis is critical to regional security, stability, and freedom of navigation.”
CENTCOM said this was the largest seizure of advanced Iranian weapons in the NRF’s history. The NRF said this interdiction occurred in late June, according to the Associated Press.
The Iranians have supplied the Houthis with weapons for years.
The Houthis began carrying out attacks against commercial vessels transiting the waterways off Yemen’s coasts in solidarity with Gaza in November 2023, during the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Their attacks prompted global shipping companies to largely avoid the Red Sea, instead opting for a longer route that avoids the areas where ships have been targeted.
The U.S. military conducted an aggressive seven-week bombing campaign of the Houthis beginning in March 2025, before both sides agreed to a ceasefire, which President Donald Trump announced in May.
The specific details of the agreement are not public, but the Houthis appeared to violate the deal with two attacks on commercial vessels on July 7 and 8, their first in months. The Houthis sank the two vessels they attacked, the Eternity C and Magic Seas, killing three mariners and injuring others.
These two attacks raised concerns that the Houthis could restart their attacks, though they didn’t in the week since the attacks.
Last month, Israel and Iran fought in what has become known as the 12-Day War. Israel launched the opening attack and targeted Iran’s air defenses, nuclear facilities, senior military leaders, and nuclear scientists. Iran fired hundreds of ballistic missiles into Israel in response, killing more than two dozen people. The death toll in Iran was in the hundreds.
The U.S. got involved in the war, bombing three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, two of which had underground components. The U.S. military’s mission went as the planners intended, though the intelligence community is conducting a battle damage assessment to ascertain the extent of the damage caused by the strikes.
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The U.S. military carried out two interdictions of vessels transiting from Iran with weapons meant for the Houthis in January 2024. During one of the interdictions, Special Warfare Officer Christopher Chambers slipped while trying to board the dhow and fell into the water. Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram dove in to rescue him, but both were lost at sea despite extensive rescue efforts.
The captain of that vessel, Muhammad Pahlawan, was found guilty in a Virginia court last month of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, supporting Iran’s weapons of mass destruction program, transporting explosive devices intended to harm others, and witness intimidation. He will be sentenced in September.