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US transfers seized Iranian arms to Ukraine

US seized over 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, RPGs & 500,000+ rounds of ammo in July 2023 forfeiture against Iran’s IRGC. The weapons were being illicitly transferred from IRGC to Houthi rebels in Yemen, violating UN sanctions.

byMaria Tril

10/04/2024

1 minute read

Captured Weapons transfered to Ukraine. Credit: US Central Command

US transfers seized Iranian arms to Ukraine

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on 9 April that it transferred a brigade’s worth of small arms and ammunition seized from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Ukraine on 4 April.

According to the CENTCOM statement on X, the US government transferred over 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, RPG-7s and over 500,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition to the Ukrainian military.

CENTCOM stated that it obtained these munitions on 1 December 2023 through a Department of Justice (DoJ) civil forfeiture claim opened against the IRGC in July 2023.

The munitions were being transferred from the IRGC to the Houthis in Yemen in violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216,” the statement says.

CNN reported on October 2023 that CENTCOM had already transferred over one million rounds of seized IRGC ammunition to Ukraine as of October 2023.

Over the past year, the US Navy has seized thousands of Iranian assault rifles and more than one million rounds of ammunition from vessels used by Iran to ship weapons to Yemen. The seizures, frequently carried out with regional partner forces, target small stateless vessels on routes historically used to smuggle weapons to the Houthis in Yemen.

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