This image taken from video provided to The Associated Press by a Middle East defense official shows a helicopter raid targeting a ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
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P.A.
This image taken from video provided to The Associated Press by a Middle East defense official shows a helicopter raid targeting a ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
P.A.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards rappelled from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel Saturday, the latest in a series attacks between the two countries.
The Middle East had been bracing for possible Iranian retaliation following a suspected Israeli strike earlier this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including a high-ranking Guard general who once commanded its Quds Expeditionary Force.
Israel’s broader war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has now lasted six months and is stoking decades-old tensions across the region.
Iran’s IRNA agency said a Guard Navy special forces unit carried out the attack on the ship, which other media outlets in the country widely identified as the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a carrier -containers associated with Zodiac Maritime, based in London.
Zodiac Maritime is part of the Zodiac group of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC, which did not immediately respond.
Earlier, a Middle East defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, shared video of the attack with The Associated Press. We see the commandos rappelling down a pile of containers placed on the deck of the ship.
A member of the ship’s crew can be heard saying: “Don’t go out.” He then tells his colleagues to go to the ship’s bridge as other commandos come down to the deck. One commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide them with potential covering fire.
The video matched known details of MSC Aries. The helicopter used also appears to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter, which the Guard and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have used in the past to carry out commando raids on ships.
The British Army’s Maritime Trade Operations in the United Kingdom described the ship as being “seized by regional authorities” in the Gulf of Oman, off the coast of the Emirati port city of Fujairah, without further details.
The MSC Aries was last located off the coast of Dubai, heading towards the Strait of Hormuz, on Friday. The ship had its tracking data disabled, which is common for Israeli-affiliated vessels moving through the region.
Iran has engaged in a series of ship seizures since 2019 and attacks on ships have been attributed to it amid ongoing tensions with the West over its rapidly evolving nuclear program.
The Gulf of Oman lies close to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded globally passes. Fujairah, on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, is one of the region’s main ports where ships can take on new oil cargoes, pick up supplies or exchange crews.
Since 2019, the waters off Fujairah have been the scene of a series of explosions and hijackings. The US Navy has accused Iran of being responsible for limpet mine attacks on ships that damaged oil tankers.