Profile
- Type
- SVD-pattern sniper and designated marksman rifle
- Conflict side
- Houthi-aligned forces
- Origin
- Iran
- Service note
- Documented in regional maritime arms interdictions during the Yemen Civil War
Infantry Weapons
Hoshdar-M sniper rifle
The Hoshdar-M is an Iranian SVD-pattern sniper and designated marksman rifle, also associated in UN reporting with the Nakhjir name. Its Yemen Civil War relevance comes from the 2016 FS Provence maritime interdiction, where investigators documented 64 new-condition rifles with sequential serial numbers in a shipment assessed as part of an Iran-linked route toward Somalia and possible onward transfer to Yemen's Houthi-aligned forces.
- Conflict side
- Houthi-aligned forces
- Built by
- Defence Industries Organization
- Built in
- Iran
Service History
- In service
- Documented in a 2016 interdicted shipment linked to the Yemen arms-supply route
- Used by
- Iranian forces, Houthi-aligned forces (reported intended recipient context)
- Wars
- Yemen Civil War
Production History
- Designer
- Based on the Soviet SVD/Dragunov pattern
- Designed
- Not publicly confirmed
- Built by
- Defence Industries Organization
- Built in
- Iran
- Unit cost
- Not publicly available
- Produced
- Pre-2016 examples documented
- Number built
- At least 64 documented in the FS Provence seizure
- Variants
- Nakhjir sniper rifle
Specifications
- Pattern
- SVD-pattern semi-automatic sniper/designated marksman rifle
- Documented quantity
- 64 rifles in the March 2016 FS Provence seizure
- Condition
- New-condition rifles with mostly sequential serial numbers in UN and CAR reporting
- Optics
- Optical sights intended for SVD sniper rifles were documented with the same seizure
Conflict Usage
- Yemen Civil War
- Side: Houthi-aligned forcesRole: Interdicted small-arms transfer for precision fire
A March 2016 FS Provence interdiction documented 64 new-condition Iranian Hoshdar-M SVD-pattern sniper rifles in a dhow shipment assessed by CAR and analysts as part of an Iran-linked arms pipeline toward Somalia and Yemen, with possible onward transfer to Houthi-aligned forces rather than confirmed battlefield use.
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Maritime Interdictions of Weapon Supplies to Somalia and YemenPublisher: Conflict Armament Research | Note: Supports Yemen Civil War transfer context: CAR describes illegal dhow shipments destined for Somalia and Yemen and documents Hoshdar-M rifles assessed as supplied to or transferred to the Iran-linked weapons pipeline. | Accessed: 2026-06-20Responding to Iran's Arms Smuggling in YemenPublisher: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy | Note: Supports Yemen Civil War conflict use context: reports Hoshdar-M rifles in the Provence seizure and frames them as transferred to the Houthi arms-supply pipeline. | Accessed: 2026-06-20How Iranian Weapons Are Ending Up in YemenPublisher: The Washington Post | Note: Supports Yemen Civil War conflict use context: reports that the Hoshdar-M rifles were shipped in a seizure tied to Iranian weapons transferred to Houthi-aligned forces in Yemen. | Accessed: 2026-06-20UN Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group Report S/2017/924Publisher: United Nations Security Council | Note: Supports manufacturer, background, and specs: identifies 64 Hoshdar-M SVD sniper rifles in the FS Provence seizure, notes new condition and mostly sequential serials, and states that Hoshdar-M rifles were manufactured by Iran's Defence Industries Organization. | Accessed: 2026-06-20SVD DD-ST-85-01254 ImagePublisher: Wikimedia Commons | Note: Supports image provenance and public-domain license for a representative SVD-pattern rifle image; a rights-clear Hoshdar-M-specific image was not available. | Accessed: 2026-06-20