DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel Saturday in the latest attack between the two countries.
The seizure followed a suspected Israeli strike this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including a senior Guard general.
U.S. President Joe Biden cut short a weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware to return to the White House and monitor the situation in the Middle East, where Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip has inflamed decade-old tensions. With Iranian-backed forces like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemen’s Houthi rebels also involved in the fighting, any new attack threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war.
Iran’s state-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Guard’s navy carried out the attack on the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime.
Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC. Geneva-based MSC acknowledged the seizure and said 25 crew members were on the ship.
“We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel,” MSC said.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the crew was made up of Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian and Estonian nationals and urged Iran to release them and the vessel.
IRNA said the Guard would take the vessel into Iranian territorial waters.
A Middle East defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, provided video of the attack to The Associated Press in which Iranian commandos are seen rappelling onto a stack of containers on the vessel’s deck.
A crew member can be heard saying: “Don’t come out.” He then tells his colleagues to go to the ship’s bridge as more commandos come down. One commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide them potential cover fire.
The video corresponded with known details of the MSC Aries. The commandos rappelled from what appeared to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter, which both the Guard and the Iranian-backed Houthis have used before to raid ships.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations described the vessel as being “seized by regional authorities” in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah, without elaborating.
This image made from a video provided to The Associated Press by a Mideast defense official shows a helicopter raid targeting a vessel near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, April 13, 2024. A video seen by The Associated Press shows commandos raiding a ship near the Strait of Hormuz by helicopter Saturday, an attack a Mideast defense official attributed to Iran amid wider tensions between Tehran and the West. The Mideast defense official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. (AP Photo)
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on nations to list the Guard as a terrorist organization.
Iran “is a criminal regime that supports Hamas’ crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law,” Katz said.
For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have threatened to “slap” Israel for its Syria strike.
The U.S., Israel’s main backer, has stood by the country despite growing concerns over Israel’s war on Gaza killing more than 33,600 Palestinians and wounding over 76,200 more. Israel’s war began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told Israel’s defense minister that the nation could count on U.S. support to defend against attacks by Iran, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Saturday.
Iran since 2019 has engaged in a series of ship seizures, and attacks on vessels have been attributed to it amid ongoing tensions with the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
In previous seizures, Iran provided initial explanations about its operations to make it seem like the attacks had nothing to do with wider geopolitical tensions — though later acknowledging as much. In Saturday’s attack, however, Iran offered no explanation other than to say the MSC Aries had links to Israel.
Iran has largely avoided directly attacking Israel, despite its targeted killings of nuclear scientists and sabotage campaigns on Iran’s atomic sites. Iran has targeted Israeli or Jewish-linked sites through proxy forces.
In Iran on Saturday, officials publicly denied faked text messages sent in the name of civil defense authorities that urged the public to “prepare drinking water and dry food” due to the “emerging emergency situation.
The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all globally traded oil passes. Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates’ eastern coast, is a main port for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew. Since 2019, the waters off Fujairah have seen a series of explosions and hijackings.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa Group on Saturday extended its suspension of flights between Frankfurt and Tehran through Thursday and said its planes would avoid Iranian airspace. The German carrier also said that, until at least Tuesday, flights to and from Amman will be operated as “day flights” so crews won’t spend a night in the Jordanian capital.
Dutch airline KLM said it will no longer fly over Iran or Israel, but will continue flights to and from Tel Aviv.
Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Krutika Pathi in New Delhi, Stephen Graham in Berlin and Thomas Adamson in Paris contributed to this report.
georgewalterackerman on April 13rd, 2024 at 14:15 UTC »
Maybe Iran will try and use the seizing of this ship, and a few other small actions, to serve as their response to Israel? If they can create a few headlines and dove good TV footage, then they’ll think they can save face and not have to actually confront Israel let alone the USA. Iran knows that escalation for them is a bad idea and that a full on war would be the beginning of the end for the regime.
eserinesalicylate on April 13rd, 2024 at 14:00 UTC »
I genuinely don't know why people assume this is Iran's 'retaliation'.
Israeli-linked ships have been seized by the IRGC multiple times over the past few years, this is clearly not the anticipated response, it's really nothing new at all.
I'm not saying Iran is going to launch a gorillion missiles at Israel, but there will certainly be a proportional response, and it won't be the seizure of a ship.
If you have let yourself get hyped up by the US media in the past few days, then you must know that their psyop was successful on you, and that you are very naive and impressionsble. The response will come, only Iran knows when.
Fendabenda38 on April 13rd, 2024 at 12:11 UTC »
Submission statement:
Commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled down from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks between the two countries.
The Middle East had braced for potential Iranian retaliation over a suspected Israeli strike earlier this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including a senior Guard general who once commanded its expeditionary Quds Force there.
The Israeli war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip meanwhile is now 6 months old and is inflaming decades-old tensions across the whole region. With Iranian-backed forces like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemen’s Houthi rebels also involved in the fighting, any new attack in the Mideast threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war.
Iran’s state-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Guard’s navy carried out the attack on the vessel, which other media in the country widely identified as the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime.
Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group. 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 a video of the attack with The Associated Press. In it, the Iranian commandos are seen rappelling down onto a stack of containers sitting on the deck of the vessel.