Australian Navy says seizes huge weapons cache headed for Somalia | Top News | Reuters
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An Australian Navy ship has seized a huge cache of weapons near Oman’s coast from a fishing vessel bound for Somalia, the navy said on Monday, exposing a possible violation of a U.N. Security Council arms embargo.
The United Nations has a decades-long arms embargo in place against Somalia, which has been mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991.
The Australian navy, which patrols waters around the Indian Ocean as part of an international maritime force, said it had seized nearly 2,000 AK-47 rifles, 100 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 49 PKM machine guns, 39 PKM spare barrels and 20 mortar tubes from the fishing vessel.
“The weapons were seized under United Nations sanctions, which authorise interdiction on the high seas of illicit weapons destined for Somalia,” the navy said in a statement.
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The navy said personnel from HMAS Darwin had boarded the fishing vessel about 170 nautical miles (313 km) off the coast of Oman to verify which flag it was sailing under and they determined that it was stateless.