Another Iranian Arms Shipment Captured by Israel

Previously I investigated the "Francop" incident where Israel intercepted a merchant vessel loaded with weapons, including rockets, mortarts and small arms ammunition from Iran to Hezbollah.

Today, Israel seized another ship, traveling from Turkey (originally from Syria) to Egypt (with a presumable end destination of the Gaza Strip) that also contains weaponry (ostensibly Iranian).



This is the story thus far:


PM: Arms on broad Victoria vessel originated from Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Israeli navy interception of the "Victoria" ship carrying a large delivery of weapons off the country's Mediterranean coast on Tuesday, saying the arms on broad the vessel originated from Iran.

"We had reasonable ground to suppose the arms on board the ship were intended to harm Israeli citizens. The weapons originated from Iran. The interception occurred in high seas according to international laws. We've updated all of the countries involves in the matter and countries around the world," said Netanyahu. (Attila Somfalvi)

Ynet
So far, only these pictures have been released, courtesy of Militaryphotos.net

In this first picture, we cans see shipping crates containing mortar tubes. Note that these crates are identical to those found on the Francop.

This is a 120 mm mortar that is somewhat different then the usual model associated with Iran, however, there are enough similarities (fuse, mortar tube, banding) that the difference in text markings is negligible.

Even more crates...



















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The big question here is whether or not these weapons came from the Iranian ships that visited Syria recently. Now, the timing of this seizure in turn raises some questions because it would appear to be extremely fortuitous for Israel to find this cargo after they were claiming this exact danger. This will most likely generate claims of a false flag operation on the part of pro-Iranian or anti-Israeli commentators. This claim may not be entirely without merit because it is an odd coincidence to say the least, but to assert it at this point would be pure supposition.


***UPDATE***
The ship was found to be carrying C-704 (Nasr) anti-ship missiles. This is a major development and could represent a very significant increase capability for Hamas if there is another way of them attaining the system.