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This image, created from video provided to The Associated Press by a Middle East defense official, shows helicopter airstrikes targeting ships near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
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This image, created from video provided to The Associated Press by a Middle East defense official, shows a helicopter strike targeting a ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
AP
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 of attacks between the two countries.
The Middle East has been bracing for possible Iranian retaliation after Israel attacked the Iranian consulate building in Syria earlier this month, killing 12 people, including a senior guard general who once commanded the Quds Force.
Israel's wide-ranging war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip is now six months old and is heightening decades-old tensions across the region.
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Iran's state-run IRNA said the Guard's naval special forces carried out the attack on the ship, while other media in Iran said it was the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship affiliated with London-based Zodiac Maritime. (MSC Aries).
Zodiac Maritime is part of the Zodiac Group, run by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC, which did not immediately respond.
A Middle East defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, previously shared video of the attack with The Associated Press. In it, commandos are seen rappelling over a pile of containers placed on the deck of a ship.
A crew member on board can be heard saying, “Don't come out.” He then tells his comrades to go to the bridge as more commandos come down on the deck. One commando can be seen kneeling on top of another, providing potential covering fire.
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The images matched known details from MSC Aries. The helicopter used was also shown to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter. The helicopters have previously been used by both the Guard and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels to carry out commando raids on ships in the past.
The British Maritime Trade Operations Unit, part of the British military, said the vessel had been “seized by local authorities” in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah, but gave no further details.
MSC Aries was last positioned outside Dubai on Friday heading towards the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel had turned off tracking data normally used for Israeli-affiliated vessels moving through the area.
Iran has carried out a series of ship seizures and attacks on ships since 2019, believed to have been carried out amid ongoing tensions with the West over its rapidly evolving nuclear program.
The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow entrance to the Persian Gulf through which one-fifth of the world's traded oil passes. Fujairah, located on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates, is the region's main port, where ships load new oil cargoes, load supplies and exchange crews.
Since 2019, there have been a series of explosions and kidnappings off Fujairah. The U.S. Navy blamed Iran for a limpet mine attack on a ship that damaged an oil tanker.