WarSclerotic

AFP: Israel intercepts ship carrying weapons: military.

By Jean-Luc Renaudie (AFP) – 2 hours ago

JERUSALEM — The Israeli navy intercepted a ship carrying weapons 100 nautical miles (185 kilometres) off its coastline overnight, a military spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

“During the night a special marine force intercepted a ship that was supposed to be carrying cargo around 100 (nautical) miles from our shore,” the spokeswoman said, adding that the vessel was sailing under an Antigua flag.

“We suspected it was carrying weapons and when we inspected it that turned out to be true,” she said, adding that the ship has been taken to port for further investigation.

The military declined to say what kind of weapons were on board or where the ship was heading.

Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak hailed the operation, calling it a “new success in our struggle against weapons smuggling aimed at reinforcing terrorist organisations that are threatening the security of Israel.”

His remarks were carried in a defence ministry statement that said the ship was captured “near Cyprus” but did not provide further details.

Israel’s military radio meanwhile reported that the shipment was from Iran, bound for the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, and included anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets. The military itself declined to comment on the report.

Israel has long accused arch-foes Syria and Iran of supplying weapons to Hezbollah and to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement since June 2007.

On Tuesday a senior Israeli general warned that Hamas had successfully test-fired a rocket out to sea capable of reaching Tel Aviv from Gaza.

The rocket, believed to be Iranian-made, has a range of about 60 kilometres (37 miles), putting Israel’s major population centres in range, said Major General Amos Yadlin, head of military intelligence.

Hamas called the claim a “fabrication” designed to mobilise world opinion against the Islamist group before the UN General Assembly which was on Wednesday to discuss a controversial report on the Gaza war.

“This is a pre-emptive step by the Zionist enemy to influence international opinion,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said, adding that the report had put Israel in a state of “crisis.”

The UN report by respected South African jurist and former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes during the December-January Gaza war.

Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the three-week war launched by Israel on December 27 and aimed at halting rocket attacks, which have been mostly confined to communities a few kilometres from the Gaza border.

Israel has in the past seized shipments of weapons allegedly bound for Gaza, including in May 2003, when it intercepted a ship off its northern coast loaded with bomb-making material it said was from Hezbollah.

On January 3, 2002, Israel intercepted a 50-tonne shipment of weapons destined for the Palestinians aboard the Karine A in the Red Sea.

The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat admitted responsibility for the smuggling attempt, and the affair seriously eroded his standing with Washington.

In May 2001, the navy intercepted the Santorini, which was packed with 40 tonnes of anti-aircraft missiles, Katyusha rockets, anti-tank grenades, mortar shells and automatic weapons, and was bound for Gaza.

Israel said the shipment was sent by Ahmad Jibril’s Damascus-based PLO offshoot, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command.

This entry was posted on November 4, 2009 at 10:54 AM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.