USS Theodore Roosevelt moving to Yemen to intercept any Iranian arms shipments

The USS Theodore Roosevelt.
(Image credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Pentagon officials on Monday said that the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has been moved to the coast of Yemen in the event that it needs to intercept shipments of Iranian arms to Houthi rebels in the chaos-filled country.

The carrier had been in the Persian Gulf, a Pentagon spokesman said, and two U.S. defense officials told USA Today that the Roosevelt also was tracking a convoy of Iranian ships on their way to the Gulf of Aden. Now that the Roosevelt is in place, the U.S. has nine warships in Yemen, a Navy official said, with the Roosevelt "significantly" adding to the amount of firepower.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.