Fox News earlier reported that Marines were ordered to hand over their weapons to Iran-backed insurgents during the evacuation out of Yemen. Now the Marine Corps has released a statement saying that this did not happen, but they were ordered to destroy their weapons.
The Marine Corps has clarified what Marines did under State Department orders in Yemen following the evacuation of the U.S. embassy.
Crew served weapons were destroyed at the embassy, while Marines’ personal weapons were “rendered inoperable” at the airport, and their destroyed components were left behind.
The Marine Corps does not dispute the reporting that CENTCOM is outraged over weapons being rendered inoperable.
Here’s the statement from the Marine Corps:
The Marine Security Force left the American embassy in Yemen for the movement to the airfield as part of the “ordered departure” with only personal weapons. All crew served weapons were destroyed at the embassy prior to movement. None of them were ‘handed over’ in any way to anyone. The destruction of weapons at the embassy and the airport was carried out in accordance with an approved destruction plan.
Upon arrival at the airfield, all personal weapons were rendered inoperable in accordance with advance planning. Specifically, each bolt was removed from its weapons body and rendered inoperable by smashing with sledgehammers. The weapons bodies, minus the bolts, were then separately smashed with sledgehammers. All of these destroyed components were left at the airport — and components were scattered; no usable weapon was taken from any Marine at Sana’a airport.
To be clear: No Marine handed a weapon to a Houthi, or had one taken from him.”
That’s a story that just makes you wonder what the hell is going on at the State Department.