Last night, following extensive preparations, and on the government’s authorization, the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benjamin (Benny) Gantz, ordered the Israel Navy to intercept the Klos-C, upon which the illicit arms were concealed in between commercial cargo.
IDF special naval forces boarded the vessel, in accordance with international law, and carried out a preliminary inspection of the cargo.
They discovered numerous advanced weapons during the inspection.
The Navy is currently sailing together with the cargo ship back to Israeli shores.It will be interesting to see how President Hussein Obama reacts to this, because I am sure that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not tell him about it, and it's obviously been in the works for a while.
It's also interesting that one of the stops was an Iraqi port. Looks like Obama's decision to flee from Iraq was really smart.
/sarc
UPDATE 2:27 PM
Here are more details.
The IDF's elite Shayetet-13 naval commando raided a ship off the shores of Sudan before dawn Wednesday. The ship, which flew a Panamanian flag, carried dozens of B-302 missiles that have a range of up to 200 kilometers.
The raid took place in the Red Sea, between the waters of Sudan and Eritrea.
According to initial information, the shipment originated in Syria. The missiles were then taken aboard planes to Iran, and then made their way on the ship to Sudan. The missiles were hidden with sacks of cement.
The IDF Spokesman's Unit said that it knows with certainty that Iran is behind the shipment. The IDF soldiers are all safe and they are currently guiding the ship toward Eilat.
The IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, supervised the raid alongside Navy Commander, Maj. Gen. Ram Rotberg.
The IDF noted that the ship's captain tried to fool the IDF by first navigating toward Iraq, and only then toward Sudan.
The missiles were headed to terror organizations in Gaza, said the IDF. They were to be offloaded in Sudan and then smuggled to Gaza through the Sinai.
The ship is named Klos C. It had an international crew of 17, who are now being interrogated.Sounds like the Karine HEY HEY HEY!
