Officials: Britain Mulled Capturing Russian Ship Over Syria Helicopters

Ship Carried Repaired Helicopters, Air Defense Missiles

Last week, the US revealed a shipment of helicopters heading from Russia to Syria then, with egg on their face, admitted that the helicopters weren’t new purchases but were rather old Syrian helicopters which had simply been repaired in Russia.

The admission came Thursday, but that apparently wasn’t the end of it, as rumors continued that the British government apparently spent the weekend mulling various actions against the ship, with rumors that they were going to stop the ship by way of insurance cancellation.

Apparently this was an extremely sanitized version of the events, however, and officials are now revealing that during the weekend a high-level series of meetings were conducted raising a number of possibilities, including a military assault on the ship aiming at its capture.

Officials say that “all options” were considered against the ship, which carried the three repaired helicopters as well as some air defense missiles aimed at making a possible NATO attack on Syria less convenient. The revelation suggests that NATO hostility toward Syria could very quickly escalate into overt military action against Russia.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.