The news agency AP has obtained a video clip showing the boarding, where several armed people are winched down onto the ship.
The British military alerted earlier in the morning that a ship had been attacked. The ship is said to sail under the Portuguese flag, but to be owned by a company belonging to the Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.
The ship last indicated its position on Friday when it was in Dubai and the boarding itself must have taken place on the other side of the strait in the Gulf of Oman. It is not uncommon for Israeli-linked ships – which risk becoming targets for Iran-linked attacks – to switch off their transponders when passing through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
Photo: AP TV
It is not clear what happened after the boarding. It takes place in a situation where Israel and its allies are expecting a major Iranian attack against Israeli targets.
A Middle East military source told the AP that Iran was behind the attack, which is difficult to verify but finds some support in the fact that the helicopter used by the attackers is of a model used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The Revolutionary Guard has been behind several previous attacks on ships in the area and Iran has also assisted the Houthi movement in Yemen in its attacks south and west of the Arabian Peninsula.