XPost: sci.military.naval, soc.history.war.misc, or.politics

from https://www.seattletimes.com/business/british-military-warns-of-possible-vessel-being-boarded-near-strait-of-hormuz/

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seizes a container ship near Strait of Hormuz
amid tensions with Israel

April 13, 2024 at 1:21 am Updated April 13, 2024 at 6:24 am
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)

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)Less
Skip Ad
By Jon Gambrell
The Associated Press
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.

Iran has promised to retaliate, and 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. Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip has inflamed decade-old tensions in the Middle East, and 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 in Yemen
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.

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.

Sign up for Evening Brief
Delivered weeknights, this email newsletter gives you a quick recap of
the day's top stories and need-to-know news, as well as intriguing
photos and topics to spark conversation as you wind down from your day.

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.

The Pentagon said Saturday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke
with his Israeli counterpart “to discuss urgent regional threats … and
made clear that Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against any attacks by Iran and its regional proxies.” National security adviser Jake Sullivan also spoke with his counterpart to reinforce Washington’s “ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.”

In Iran, meanwhile, 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.

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’s initial explanations made it seem like the attacks had nothing to do with wider geopolitical tensions, then later acknowledged as much. In Saturday’s attack, however, Iran said only that
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.

Most Read Business Stories
Rainier Beer shortage has Seattle taps dry and fans frothing VIEW
Molbak’s plans return to Woodinville in a new form
Affording housing in Seattle is hard — addressing the problem is harder
Have Boeing planes really had more problems lately? Look at the numbers
Why are gold bar sales surging at Costco?
Amid concerns about the increased tensions, 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.

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.

___

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Krutika Pathi in
New Delhi, Stephen Graham in Berlin, Thomas Adamson in Paris, and Zeke
Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Jon Gambrell
The Seattle Times does not append comment threads to stories from wire
services such as the Associated Press, The New York Times, The
Washington Post or Bloomberg News. Rather, we focus on discussions
related to local stories by our own staff. You can read more about our community policies here.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)