The authorities confirmed on Sunday that the armed forces managed to successfully apprehend a ship traveling off the coast of Yemen with on board an illegal cargo of weapons.
The Supreme Security Committee told the press on Sunday that the ship had been intercepted as it was entering Yemen territorial waters near the island of Zoqar in the Red Sea.
Prior inspections showed that the weapons are Turkish-made.
An official was quoted by Saba, the state news agency as saying, "The seized weapons were planned to reach its destination inside the country after being unloaded in an island of the Hunish Archipelago via small boats and then to the Yemeni coasts."
An investigation has been launched into the incident to determine who the cargo was intended to and more importantly the identity or identities of those responsible for loading the ship with illegal weapons in the first place.
The matter is bound to strike a nerve with Turkey as it has been earlier this year, in January accused of meddling within Yemen internal affairs by providing military equipment and weapons to dissident groups, after several illegal weapon-cargo bearing alleged links to Ankara were intercepted by the Yemeni authorities.
The Turkish government had to work really hard to dispel doubts.
Whether the shipment was being sent to Yemen to be later on moved to another location has yet to be determined. Security analysts have increasingly warned that the impoverished nation is being used as a by-pass country for traffickers.