The seizure of the Rwabee marks the latest assault in the
Red Sea, a crucial route for international trade and energy shipments. The
Iranian-backed Houthis acknowledged the incident off the coast of Hodeida, a
long-contested prize of the grinding war in Yemen.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the hacking
of The Jerusalem Post. The hackers replaced the Post’s homepage with an image
depicting a missile coming down from a fist bearing a ring long associated with
Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed by a US drone strike in Iraq
two years ago.
First word of the Rwabee’s seizure came from the British
military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which only said an attack
targeted an unnamed vessel around midnight. The coordinates it offered
corresponded to the Emirati-flagged landing craft Rwabee, which hadn’t given
its location via satellite-tracking data for hours, according to the website
MarineTraffic.com.
A statement from the Saudi-led coalition, carried by state
media in the kingdom, acknowledged the attack hours later, saying the Houthis
had committed an act of “armed piracy” involving the vessel. The coalition
asserted the ship carried medical equipment from a dismantled Saudi field
hospital in the distant island of Socotra, without offering evidence.
“The Houthi militia must immediately release the ship,
otherwise the coalition forces shall take all necessary measures and procedures
to deal with this violation, including the use of force,” Brig. Gen. Turki
al-Malki said in a statement.
A Houthi military spokesman, Yahia Sarei, announced that
rebel forces had seized what he described as an Emirati “military cargo ship”
carrying equipment into Yemen’s territorial waters “without any license” to
engage in “hostile acts” against Yemen’s stability. He said the rebels would
offer more details on the seizure later.
An employee at the vessel’s owners, Abu Dhabi-based Liwa
Marine Services, told The Associated Press that the Rwabee appeared to have
been the target but said they had no other information and declined to comment
further. The employee did not give her name and hung up.
A similar incident happened in 2016 involving the Emirati
vessel SWIFT-1, which had been sailing back and forth in the Red Sea
between an Emirati troop base in Eritrea and Yemen. The vessel came under
attack by Houthi forces in 2016. The Emirati government asserted the SWIFT-1 had
carried humanitarian aid; UN experts later said of the claim that they were ‘unconvinced
of its veracity’.
In the attack targeting The Jerusalem Post’s website, the
image posted by the hackers depicts an exploding target from a recent Iranian
military drill designed to look like the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear
Research Center near the city of Dimona. The facility is already home to
decades-old underground laboratories that reprocess the reactor’s spent rods to
obtain weapons-grade plutonium for Israel’s nuclear bomb program.
Under its policy of nuclear ambiguity, Israel neither
confirms nor denies having atomic weapons.
In a tweet, the Post acknowledged being the target of
hackers.
“We are aware of the apparent hacking of our website,
alongside a direct threat to Israel,” the English-language newspaper wrote. “We
are working to resolve the issue & thank readers for your patience and
understanding.”
The newspaper later restored its website. It noted
Iran-supporting hackers previously targeted its homepage in 2020 “with an
illustration of Tel Aviv burning as then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
swam” with a life preserver.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli government.
The hack comes after Israel’s former military intelligence chief in late
December publicly acknowledged his country was involved in
Soleimani’s killing. The US drone killed Soleimani as he was leaving Baghdad’s
international airport.
In Iraq on Monday, troops shot down two ‘suicide drones at
the Baghdad airport, American and Iraqi officials said. No group immediately
claimed the attack, though one of the drones’ wings had words ‘Soleimani’s
revenge’ painted on it in Arabic. Militias backed by Iran have been suspected
in similar assaults. No injuries or damage were reported in the incident.
Iran also did not immediately acknowledge the hack. However,
the country has in recent days stepped up its commemorations of the slain
Revolutionary Guard general. Memorial services were scheduled to be held Monday
for Soleimani.
As the head of the Quds, or Jerusalem, Force of the
Revolutionary Guard, Soleimani led all of its expeditionary forces and
frequently shuttled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Quds Force members have
deployed into Syria’s long war to support President Bashar Assad, as well as
into Iraq in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein,
a longtime foe of Tehran.
Soleimani rose to prominence by advising forces fighting the
Islamic State group in Iraq and in Syria on behalf of the embattled Assad.
US officials say the Guard under Soleimani taught Iraqi
militants how to manufacture and use especially deadly roadside bombs against
US troops after the invasion of Iraq. Iran has denied that. Many Iranians to
this day see Soleimani as a hero who fought Iran’s enemies abroad.
Tensions have been high in the region amid a shadow war between Iran and Israel, as well as the collapse of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers after then-President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew America from the accord. Negotiations aimed at resuscitating the deal continue in Vienna.
