 "This image from a video provided by a Middle East-based defence official shows a helicopter raid targeting a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. It shows commandos raiding the ship in an attack the official attributed to Iran. (Source: AP)")
Amid fears of the widening of the conflict in the Middle East, Iran on Saturday seized an Israel-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has vowed to punish Israel for the killing of a top general in an airstrike on the country’s diplomatic mission in Syrian capital Damascus on April 1. The United States and Israel believe that an Iranian attack on Israel is imminent and is likely to occur over the weekend or early next week.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency, associated with the country’s vastly powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that IRGC’s naval personnel on Saturday seized the ship ‘MSC Aries’. It said that the ship flies the flag of Portugal but belongs to London-based company Zodiac Maritime which is owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Tasnim also shared a photo that appears to be taken from the ship. The photograph, which is identical to the one also published by the Associated Press, appears to show commandoes onboarding the ship from a military helicopter hovering above the ship.
The AP separately reported a defence official based in the Middle East as saying that the seizure of the ship was indeed carried out by Iran.
Separately, the UK Navy’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said that a ship had been “seized by regional authorities” 50 nautical miles northeast of United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Fujairah. The UKMTO said the seizure took place around 8:20 am (India time).
In the video accessed by the AP, the agency reported a crew member could be heard saying: “Don’t come out.” The report further says that the crew member then tells his colleagues to go to the ship’s bridge as more commandos rappelled onto the ship from the helicopter. The video with the AP showed one commando kneeling above the others to apparently provide the group cover fire.
While the agency did not immediately verify the video, it noted that the helicopter in the video —which was shared by the Middle East-based defence official— appeared to be one used by Iran’s IRGC, which has similarly raided ships in the past.
The IRGC is the vastly influential Iranian armed force that’s separate from the country’s regular military and reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei. The top general killed in the April 1 airstrike, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was the top IRGC commander in Syria who looked after the Quds Force’s operations in Syria and Lebanon. The Quds Force is the IRGC’s military and intelligence wing that looks after Iran’s covert operation abroad.
The Strait of Hormuz, where the seizure took place, is a narrow water body that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Around 20% of the world’s oil passes through the strait and UAE’s Fujairah, near which the ship was seized, is the main port in the region where ships pick supplies, trade crew, or load oil cargo.
In the wake of the Iranian threat, US President Joe Biden has assured Israel of “ironclad” support. Israel has also declared that any attack on Israeli soil would be met with a strike on the attacker’s soil. In remarks on Friday, Biden said that the Iranian attack is expected “sooner than later”.