Name: Iran war: 3 ships struck in Strait of Hormuz
Uploaded: 2026-03-11T23:02:13.000Z
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New images near the Strait of Hormuz off Iran where new attacks are now sending oil prices on another wild ride today.

This is a Thai flagged ship, one of at least three vessels that have been struck today in that critical waterway.

Thailand's Ministry of Transport says 20 crew members have been rescued.

Going to show you a map of the approximate locations of these attacks on ships today in the strait.

A reminder, some 20 million barrels of fuel a day move through this critical shipping route and it is clearly effectively remains shut down because of this very real threat.

Let's get right to Paula Hancock's Live in Abu Dhabi for the latest on this.

Okay, we just heard from the, um, the UK Maritime Agency and they say that as of now they believe that about 13 vessels have been impacted since this war started.

We have some more information on that as well from authorities.

They said that there was an explosion at the stern and then a fire broke out in the engine room.

Now this is believed to be where those three missing sailors were on duty at the time.

We know that the captain told the crew to evacuate.

They got in lifeboats and were then saved.

So it is a great concern that Iran appears to be ratcheting up these attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and in these very critical waters.

Now one of the vessels we understand was a cargo vessel.

So we're not just talking about the restrictions of oil getting to where it needs to here.

There's a lot more that there are concerns of.

Now a quick look at what else has been happening since Iran has said that it's going to have its most intense and heaviest operation.

We do appear to be seeing a fairly consistent retaliation across the Gulf nations.

Here in the uae, we have been hearing a number of different waves of interceptions.

Dubai Airport, there were two drones that hit nearby.

We understand that four people have been injured there.

Authorities saying in the vicinity of of Dubai Airport that fell flights have started to take off again.

Now though we also know that in Bahrain, in Kuwait, in Saudi Arabia, they have also seen interceptions and alerts over the past 12, 24 hours.

And Iran has also expanded, if you like its target list.

We are hearing from Iranian officials through state media that they say now offices and assets of major American tech companies with operations in the region would be considered a legitimate target.

Now clearly there are many in this, this Gulf region.

We also had an interesting quote I want to bring to you from the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson saying that from day one they had warned that this could be the potential fallout of any military action in Iran.

He said, quote, this is, is the biggest I told you so in the history of I told you so's in the world.

Clearly, there is frustration and anger among leaders in this region, Kate, very clearly.

Paula Hancocks, thank you so much, Paul, for bringing us all of those new headlines.

The geography is extremely well known and understood and perhaps because of that, the risks currently being faced are so severe.

Take for example, Maersk Shipping, which has got at least 10 ships that it says stranded in the northern part of the Strait of Hormuz and many more on the outside that it can't get in or out because obviously the waterway is so difficult.

In addition, they are refusing to send now ships up through into the Red Sea because of the possibilities of the Houthis and the risks around Yemen as a result.

Something like Maersk is saying the current situation is absolutely uncharted and unprecedented.

Some of the hubs on which global trade does rely on are actually being affected, are being closed by the situation right now.

It's true for Mjebel Ali, it's true for Abu Dhabi, it's true for a few of those hubs.

And this is going to create ripple effect, I think, for a while as we need to see how this is going to sort itself out.

But if this was to endure, this would create, I think, serious congestions and serious issues across the global supply chain.

The very idea that this area is being mined by the Iranians or indeed that the US Is going in and starting to attack those various rubber dinghies and ships that's doing the mines, it's simply unheard of and frankly, we don't know how it will develop.

The only thing we can say with any degree of certainty is that as long as that waterway remains closed and the price of oil just keeps rising.

With us now, CNN national security analyst Beth Sander and with a CNN military analyst, retired Colonel Cedric Layton.

And Beth, I just want to start with the latest news from what we've inside the Strait of Hormuz.

This is one of the cargo vessels that's been hit.

You can see the smoke coming out of that.

It is one of three vessels hit, you know, 1, 2, 3 over the last 12 hours or so.

If the Iranians are doing this to ships in this key shipping lane, what does it tell you about what they're capable of and what their plans are?

So what we're seeing now, so we started off with this idea yesterday that they were going to start putting mines in.

And I think that we have to understand here that mines are part of a system, right?

So it's mines, drones, rockets, missiles, Right?

the only place that you can pass here is really only 2 miles, not 20 miles.

And so when you have this much concentration, what the Iranians are telling us is like, we're in, right?

This is now they have made a decision that they are shutting their own access here by laying these mines.

They're shutting themselves in, essentially, and it's worth it for them.

Now, one of the things that I'm saying in the papers this morning is the Iranians are showing they have a vote in all of this.

And just to give you one more sense of what this is, them shutting down the waterway.

You can see ships here on one end of the strait.

But by and large, this area here, this most narrow area, 20 miles wide, but

the shipping lane itself, really just two miles that all but empty.

Cedric, I want to go to you with one other development overnight.

Inside Iraq, a key US Diplomatic support center was struck overnight.

What, again, does that tell you about what the Iranians have in mind and what they are still capable of?

What they're doing is they're actually looking at all the different important target sets.

They've had a real opportunity to, in essence, case all these targets.

They know exactly where our diplomatic facilities are.

They know where some of our CIA facilities are.

They know where our military facilities are.

And the reason they are doing this is this is their way asymmetrically of going after us.

You know, on the one hand, we measure things like number of aircraft taken out.

We measure things like number of vessels taken out and how many we put to the bottom of the Persian Gulf.

That's all great, but the problem is the Iranians are fighting with other means.

And as Beth was pointing out, they are using things like drones, missiles, and

mines to take that asymmetric effort forward.

And in some cases, they have an asymmetric advantage.

And so going after areas like logistics Centers like they did in Kuwait, going after Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and going after that diplomatic support center in Baghdad is exact part of the Iranian playbook.

I think, Cedric, you can jump in and disagree if I'm wrong here.

But I mean, it's very, very likely that this was, that this was done by Iranian backed militias that are Iraqis.