Weapons cache seized by French in Indian Ocean may have come from Iran

A large weapons cache headed for Somalia was discovered and seized by the French on March 20, authorities said.  It's the second large weapons seizure in the region this month, and both may have been headed to Yemen from Iran. According to a U.S. assessment, the arms that were most recently seized originated in Iran, and their likely ultimate destination was Yemen, Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for U.S. 5th Fleet, told CNN. Iran has been accused of arming Houthis -- fellow Shiite Muslims fighting against the government in Yemen's civil war -- before. Stephens would not specify whether or not the United States believed this weapons shipment was headed to Houthi rebels. HMAS Darwin weapons seizure 6 photos: Middle East weapons seizure Earlier this month, a similar arms cache was discovered off the coast of Oman. U.S. authorities said those weapons were believed to be initially sent from Iran and were probably intended for Houthi rebels in Yemen by way of Somalia, according to Lt. Ian McConnaughey with the U.S. Navy. The March 20 discovery is the third such weapons seizure since September, Stephens said.

French forces spotted the ship carrying the arms as part of routine surveillance in the northern Indian Ocean.

On board the vessel, they found discovered "several hundred AK47 assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank weapons," according to a March 28 news release by the Combined Maritime Forces.

The CMF is a multinational naval partnership -- which includes France -- that helps police more than 3 million square miles of international waters.

"France has been supporting Combined Maritime Forces operations since their inception," the CMF said.

The CMF routinely conducts boardings to determine the origin of unmarked vessels (so-called "flag verification boardings") on a "regular basis," McConnaughey said. That's how the weapons discovered on March 7 were found.