TerrorismIsrael intercepts ship carrying Syrian missiles from Iran to Gaza

In its most daring – and logistically demanding –military operation in about a year, Israeli naval commandos earlier yesterday (Wednesday) intercepted an Iranian arms ship in the Red Sea, more than 900 miles from Israeli shores.

The ship was carrying dozens of Syria-manufactured M-302 medium-range missiles from Iran to Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

The M-302 missile would have dramatically increased the capabilities of militant organizations in Gaza. It carries a warhead of 150 kg and has a range of about 300km.

The ship was on its way to Sudan, which Iran has been using for several years as way-station for its arms shipments to the Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip.

Five years ago, in late January 2009, Israeli jets attacked Iranian military convoys in Sudan and destroyed dozens of trucks carrying missiles from Port Sudan, where they had arrived from Iran, to Iranian warehouses on the outskirts of the city (see “Sudan attack: update,” HSNW, 1 April 2009). Israel attacked and disrupted other Iranian operations in Sudan which were aimed to help Hamas and Islamic Jihad (see “Israeli planes destroy Sudanese arms factory suspected of producing chemical weapons for Hamas,” HSNW, 24 October 2012; and “Israeli strikes kill WMD-related Hamas operatives in Sudanese port,” HSNW, 7 April 2011).

Haaretz reports that in the early morning hours of Wednesday, special forces from the Shayetet 13 (Flotilla 13) unit stopped and climbed on board the Panama-flagged ship, named Klos C. Relying on intelligence information gathered by Mossad and Aman (military intelligence), the commandos uncovered dozens of Syria-made M-302mm rockets, which were already used by Hezbollah against Israel in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Iran, in order to maintain deniability, decided to send the Syria-manufactured M-302rather that Iranian missiles. Iran took other evasive measure to conceal its part in the operation.

The Syrian missiles were loaded onto transport airplanes at the Damascus airport and flown to Iran. There they were placed in containers and loaded onto a Panama-flagged cargo ship, which then sailed to Basra, Iraq, where it took a cargo of cement. At the Iraqi port, Iranian operatives covered the missiles with bags of cement, in addition to loading containers containing only bags of cement. From Basra the ship set on its 10-day trip to Port Sudan.

Israeli intelligence followed the missiles from their origin in Syria, and then tracked the ship as it sailed north to Iraq and then south and west to Sudan.