Iran war: 3 ships struck in Strait of Hormuz

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, three though remain unaccounted for. I'm going to show you a map of the approximate locations of these attacks on ships today in the Strait. From 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. What are you hearing here?

Okay we just heard from the UK Maritime Agency and they say that as of now they believe that about 13 vessels have been impacted since this war started. Now you mentioned that Thai flagged ship 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. So 20 rescued by the Omani Navy. We know that the captain told the crew to evacuate, they got in lifeboats and were then saved, but three still missing at this point. to 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. in More people have been injured, their authority saying, in the vicinity 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 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 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, Paula, for bringing us all of those new headlines. I really appreciate it.

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 from Jebel 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. In the short run, we can manage this. But if this was to endure, this would create, I think, serious congestions and serious issues

across the global supply chain.

What happens next is anybody's guess. 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, then the price of oil just keeps rising. Richard Quest, CNN, London.

With us now, CNN National Security Analyst, Beth Sander, and with us, CNN Military Analyst, retired Colonel Cedric Layton. And Beth, I just want to start with the latest news from what we've been seeing inside the Strait of Hormuz. This is one of the cargo vessels that's been hit. This is a new image we're getting in. You can see the smoke coming out of that. It is one of three vessels hit, you

know, 123 over the last 12 hours or so. So what does this tell you? If the Iranians are doing this to ships in this key shipping lane, what does this tell you? 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. And so in this very small area, and the only place that you can pass here

is really only two 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. So they're all in now.

One of the things that they've been 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, 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 wanna go to you with one other development overnight. This is inside Iraq, right? Inside Iraq, a key U.S. diplomatic support center was struck overnight. the U. S. And the U. S. diplomatic support center. John, I know you were in

Iraq. Outside Iraq, a key U. S diplomatic support center was struck overnight. I'll put the well, it was right here. You can see it right here. What

again? Does that tell you about

what the Iranians have in mind and what they're still capable of? Yes. So, John. Good morning. What they're doing is targets that 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, you know, 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, you know, 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 exactly part of the Iranian playbook.

And as they try to show... Oh, go ahead, Beth.

Yeah, so what I want to add to that, and 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 done by Iranian backed militias that are Iraqis, right? We have not seen them join the fight. We have Hezbollah committing suicide in Lebanon, literally, because, you know, Israel is, is, you know, beating the crap out of them. And now we have Iraq joining in. Are we going to have Yemen join in? Are

we going to have the Houthis join into this fight, which would, you know, move us to the Red Sea? They haven't done that yet because it's not exactly in their interest right now to draw fire. They're kind of on their back heels right now domestically. But this is, again, an expansion of the war that we, you know, we were kind of waiting for. It hasn't happened, but maybe this is it.

Cedric, when we go back to the Straits. Go ahead, Cedric. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Go ahead. Oh, no, that's OK. the red sea, and it's a possibility that the Hooties will get involved. I think we need to go back to the

streets. Go ahead, Cedric. Sorry I didn't mean interrupt. Go ahead. No, that's okay. What I was going to say is that Beth is Beth is right, and I think we need to look

at the possibility that the Hooties will get involved at some point in time, and that would then mean that two and the bubble and a person with cmc's into the indian ocean that is the kind of uh... area that we actually i could see some uh... some efforts and that is something where the proxies just like that said in iraq

the proxies are going to play a role in this and this is uh... you know definitely an expansion of the effort and the iranians are controlling that narrative along with their proxies of course

yet this is the warrait of Hormuz, this would be the Red Sea right here, the Houthis operating right here, perhaps shutting down some of the shipping in and out of that region. One other thing, you know, we were talking about the mines, right? The idea, CNN was reporting that Iran may be laying mines in the Red Sea, then CENTCOM, sorry, in the Strait of Hormuz, then CENTCOM released this video, they say, is of U.S. warplanes and missiles striking the Iranian mine-laying ships.

Is this enough to disable them? I think we think the Iranians have, what, 5,000 mines that they could use? Would this be enough to stop efforts to mine the Straits?

I mean, it's obviously it helps, but I mean, we're talking about a thousand mile coastline and we're talking about a capacity of Iran to use all manner of ships, dows, you know, things that look like fishing ships. Yeah, you can't you can't do that at scale, but you can certainly throw one or two over the back of the boat and you won't no one will know that it's very very hard to track down these very small

vessels that can lay mines so I think it's kind of whack-a-mole and we've only whacked you know one mole I mean it's not a lot just so people say this

thousand miles of coastline here this is all Iran inside the strait inside the Gulf itself and then outside. There are some reports the Iranians have been able to ship some oil out of the parts that are already outside the strait. Beth Sander, Cedric Leighton, this has been great. Beth Sander, Cedric Leighton, this has been great.

Thank you both so much for being here.