Iran has launched drone salvo at Israel, military says

Israel has said that a salvo of Iranian pilotless aircraft had been launched at it and that defence systems were poised to shoot them down or to sound sirens ordering residents in any threatened areas to take shelter.

The drones' flight time would take several hours, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.

He confirmed media reports that "Wing of Zion", Israel's version of the US "Air Force One", was airborne, saying this was due to operational considerations.

"Iran launched UAVs from its territory towards the territory of the state of Israel," military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement.

Three security sources told Reuters that a number of drones were seen flying from the direction of Iran over Iraq's Sulaymaniya province.

Earlier, Israel is closing schools nationwide over security concerns, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said, after Iran threated to retaliate for a deadly air strike on its Syria consulate.

There will be "no educational activities" when the school week begins tomorrow "in light of the security situation," he said in a televised statement.

The measure is set to last two days, according to online army guidelines.

Iran has vowed retaliation after the presumed Israeli strike on 1 April which levelled its consulate in Damascus, killing seven members of the Revolutionary Guards including two generals.

US president Joe Biden said on Friday that he expected Iran to retaliate "sooner (rather) than later".

Earlier today Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a container ship "related to the Zionist regime (Israel)" near the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz postponed a planned visit to Hungary and Austria which had been scheduled to begin tomorrow "due to the security situation," his spokesman said.

It comes as Mr Biden cut short a weekend trip to Delaware today for urgent consultations in Washington on the Middle East, the White House said, as tensions soar across the region.

The ship's operator, the Italian-Swiss group MSC, later confirmed Iranian authorities had boarded it.

The White House pushed back against the seizure of the British-owned vessel.

"We call on Iran to release the vessel and its international crew immediately," said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

"Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps."

Mr Biden had said yesterday that he expected Iran to retaliate "sooner than later," and earlier this week had said Iran was "threatening to launch a significant attack."

On Thursday the Pentagon said the top US commander for the Middle East had travelled to Israel for talks on security threats with the country's military officials.

The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf with the Indian Ocean and, according to the US Energy Information Administration, more than a fifth of annual global oil consumption passes through it each year.

'Seized by regional authorities'

Video footage showed the attack earlier reported by the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations.

It described the vessel as being "seized by regional authorities" in the Gulf of Oman, off the Emirati port city of Fujairah.

In the footage, commandos drop on to a stack of containers on the deck of the vessel.

A crew member can be heard saying: "Don’t come out," and tells colleagues to go to the ship’s bridge as more commandos come down on the deck. One commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide potential covering fire.

The footage corresponds to known details of the boarding and the helicopter involved appears to be one used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has carried out other ship raids in the past.

The vessel involved is likely to be the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group.

The MSC Aries had last been located off Dubai heading towards the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. The ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge seizing any vessel and there was no report by state media about the incident.

However, Iran since 2019 has engaged in a series of ship seizures and had attacks on vessels attributed to it amid tensions with the West over its nuclear programme.

The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes.

Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates’ eastern coast, is a main port for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.

Since 2019, the waters off Fujairah have seen a series of explosions and hijackings. The US Navy blamed Iran for limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers.