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.

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.

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.

      • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        While I don’t condone it, harboring terrorists is hardly no reason. It’s a military target, which is more than can be said about taking more civilian hostages like Iran has done.

        • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Embassies are never a military target no matter who is in them. If you’re going to call generals terrorists then it means it’s fair game for Iran to assassinate US generals. And Israel opened the can of worms, countries could bomb US embassies because the CIA is known to operate in them.

    • distantsounds@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      No, I don’t support any of the religious assclowns. I wish the US would stop funding all involved. BUT to say that this is eye for an eye is extremely disingenuous… both sides are not equal here, Israel has gone far beyond normal retaliation. Just look at the numbers, the displacement, and contempt on civilian aid. It’s all disgusting, but one side is clearly making it worse

      • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Any purely civilian targeting should be condemned, regardless of their nationality.

          • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Ah yes, my comment history calling out Hamas sympathizers spreading straight misinformation and lies.

            Iran and their proxies taking civilian hostages should be condemned every time. Not praised like is happening right now.

            • distantsounds@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              Do you know that this post’s title has been editorialized? lol
              Where are the posts praising civilians hostages? lol