Commandos from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled down from a helicopter onto a container ship "affiliated" with Israel near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel on Saturday, April 13, announced the state-run IRNA agency. It marks 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 16 people, including a senior Guard general who once commanded its expeditionary Quds Force. The wider Israeli war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip is now 6 months old and is inflaming decades-old tensions across the whole region.
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 commandos are seen rappelling down onto a stack of containers sitting on the deck of the vessel. The video corresponded with known details of the MSC Aries. The helicopter used also appeared to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter, which both the Guard and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen have used in the past to conduct commando raids on 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.
The MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai heading toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region.
The Iranian-backed Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea for months, affirming their support for Hamas engaged in the war in Gaza. The naval commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that Israel's presence in the United Arab Emirates was considered a threat by Tehran and that it could close the Strait of Hormuz – at the entrance to the Gulf – if deemed necessary. Fujairah is located on the eastern shore of the Strait of Hormuz.
Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are disrupting global shipping, forcing companies to opt for longer, more expensive voyages bypassing southern Africa. They are also stoking fears that the war between Israel and Hamas could spread throughout the Middle East. The United States and the United Kingdom have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on ships.