Eye for an eye. The secret naval war between Iran and Israel marks a new blow. Less than two weeks ago a freighter belonging to a Haifa company was hit by a missile off the coast of Tanzania. Now the answer has arrived: a series of explosions damaged the Saviz, a freighter considered the floating base of the Guardians of the Revolution for operations in the Red Sea.
According to Iranian sources, the Savit was attacked with magnetic mines: bombs placed on the flanks by underwater raiders. This is what is called “the Italian job”, a technique that the Israeli commandos of Shayetet 13 learned from the lessons of Fiorenzo Caprotti, the officer of the Royal Navy who returned from the raids against the British fleet in Malta in 1941. Also in this case, the time-triggered bombs were positioned so as not to sink the target: the Savit was able to continue sailing.
Since 2017, the Iranian freighter has been crossing in the Red Sea, where according to Western intelligence it collects key information for the marine assaults of the Yemeni Shiite Houthi militias, engaged in an increasingly technological conflict. The Saudis say it was Savit who provided the coordinates for the Houthis-led missile attacks. On at least one occasion, explosive boats were photographed on its deck, identical to those used by the Yemeni formation against a Saudi frigate.
Despite the complaints, the ship had remained undisturbed in international waters: second Al Arabya, the raid that damaged it would have taken place off the coast of Eritrea. The United States denied it was responsible for the action while the Israeli Defense declined to comment.
The secret war of the seas between Iran and Israel
by Gianluca Di Feo
The operation against Savit took place while in Vienna there was the first meeting between the US and Iranian delegations to discuss the resumption of negotiations on the nuclear agreement, suspended by the Trump administration. And shortly before the Viennese summit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterating the danger of the agreement with Tehran, had declared: “In parallel, we must continue to defend ourselves from the interference of the Iranian secret services in our region. This is not a theoretical threat and I am not saying this in a rhetorical way. We must act against the fanatical regime of Iran, which wants to wipe us off the face of the earth. ”
The clash in the shadows between the two fleets has been going on for two years now. A month ago the journalistic inquiries of the Washington Post and of Hareetz revealed that Israeli intelligence has launched a covert action campaign against Iranian oil tankers exporting crude in violation of the embargo: a trafficking that allows the Syrian regime to survive and that provides funding for the activities of the Tehran Revolutionary Guards . The oil tankers would have been hit in the Mediterranean and in the Red Sea, almost always using magnetic mines – limpet or molluscs in English – which cause damage or fires without destroying the targets.
Iranian missile hits Israeli ship in the Arabian Sea
The Iranian reprisal came with a similar device on the night between 24 and 25 February last, when the MV Helios Ray was ripped apart by an explosion off the coast of Oman. The freighter, owned by a Tel Aviv businessman, was forced to go to the nearest port for repairs. On that occasion, Netanyahu accused Iran, which in turn denied any responsibility. Then it was the turn of the Lori, a Scandinavian crew registered to a company from Haifa, which sailed from Dar Es Salam to Mundra. On this occasion, a missile perhaps launched by a small Iranian lookout would have been used. And it is not excluded that the Savit acted as the mother ship for that attack, conducted too far from any port of the Houthis or other pro-Iranian formations.
.