The U.S. military carried out its 12th consecutive night of strikes on Iran on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command said .
The Pentagon insists the Strait of Hormuz remains open, but after weeks of renewed Iranian attacks on ships, traffic through the vital waterway has slowed again, pushing up global oil prices. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebel group claimed Wednesday it attacked two oil tankers in the Red Sea, following through on a threat that could snarl another key maritime chokepoint: the Bab al-Mandab strait. President Trump threatened Wednesday to "bomb and destroy" an Iranian bridge or power plant for every new attack by Iran on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
A vessel belonging to a Saudi company was hit while transiting the Red Sea, Saudi state media reported Thursday citing an official source, after Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed it struck tankers in the waterway . The source, quoted by state-run Saudi Press Agency, said "the vessel ENCELIA, belonging to a Saudi company, was targeted while sailing in the Red Sea, resulting in a fire at the bow of the ship," but it said all crew members were safe. The Houthis had threatened to blockade Saudi ports on the Red Sea -- a key route for oil shipments -- while the five-month war had already led to the effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-red-sea-houthis/#post-update-0d35469a link copied U.S. forces completed a 12th straight night of strikes against Iran at around 10:30 p.m. ET, U.S.
Central Command said. The targets included "maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites, and air defense assets," CENTCOM said. "The strikes further degrade Iran's ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels." CENTCOM said that, since resuming its blockade of Iranian ports, it has redirected nine commercial vessels and disabled another.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-red-sea-houthis/#post-update-ea3ec1a1 link copied Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Thursday morning local time that it stopped three oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz. In recent weeks, Iran has hit tankers using a route hugging the Omani coast to traverse the strait, in a bid to strongarm vessels into using its own waters and pay for safe passage. "Three oil tankers, provoked and tempted by the child-killing American army, were trying to pass through the mine-laid route south of the Strait of Hormuz, but after one of them exploded and caught fire, the other two quickly turned around and turned back," the Guard said in a statement quoted by Iranian state media.
The statement did not say when the incident happened. "The powerful IRGC Navy emphasizes that the Strait of Hormuz is under our control... and any ship that is deceived by the US and intends to pass without coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran will suffer the same fate," the Guard added.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-red-sea-houthis/#post-update-b0fc96f1 link copied The Kuwaiti army says it is working to intercept Iranian drones. The U.S.-allied Gulf state has come under frequent Iranian attack, particularly after rounds of U.S. strikes on Iran.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-red-sea-houthis/#post-update-12c93d6b link copied The U.S. military's Central Command said it has begun a 12th consecutive night of strikes on Iran, intended to "further degrade Iran's ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters." https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-red-sea-houthis/#post-update-bee283ee link copied Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels claimed to attack two commercial oil tankers in the Red Sea on Wednesday, a move that could further snarl shipping. The U.K.
Maritime Trade Operations Centre said Wednesday it received reports of a tanker being hit by an "unknown projectile" off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, causing an onboard fire. No casualties were reported. At around the same time, a spokesperson for the Houthis said on social media that the group carried out an operation to attack two Saudi oil tankers.
Days earlier, the Houthis threatened a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia, which has fought the Yemeni group for years. The apparent strike could pose further problems for a shipping industry that is already struggling with Iranian threats to attack unapproved ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the world's oceans. Yemen is adjacent to another vital strait on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, the Bab al-Mandab.
That strait connects the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, serving as a route to the Suez Canal and onward to the Mediterranean. Asia-bound oil tankers also sail through the Bab al-Mandab after departing a Saudi oil export terminal on the Red Sea that has been used as an alternative to Persian Gulf ports during the Strait of Hormuz's near-closure. In recent days, at least four ships that were headed toward the Bab al-Mandab have appeared to take U-turns and avoid the waterway, analytics firm Kpler said earlier Wednesday.
The Houthis have a history of attacking ships in the Red Sea, including in 2023 and 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-red-sea-houthis/#post-update-f2624bc4 link copied The U.S. and Saudi governments have signed a commercial nuclear deal that could allow Saudi Arabia to have a civilian nuclear program on its soil in cooperation with American companies, the U.S.
Department of Energy announced Wednesday. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed what the Trump administration calls a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement, along with a safeguard agreement. The deal could set the stage for a nuclear program for energy and other civilian purposes, but not for military purposes.
CBS News had previously reported the expected signing of the deal, which would create the potential for uranium enrichment on Saudi soil, though that would be controlled by a contracted corporation and only after a lengthy study is completed. The landmark deal signifies the strengthening alliance and trust between the U.S. and the Saudis.
But it is likely to irritate Iran, Saudi Arabia's chief rival, which has long insisted on its right as a signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to maintain a civilian nuclear program. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-red-sea-houthis/#post-update-1d6ab8c3 link copied Speaking to supporters in Marietta, Georgia, President Trump said the U.S. doesn't need the Strait of Hormuz because the U.S.
already has so much oil. "We don't need straits. We don't need anything," Mr.
Trump told the crowd. "We don't need the Hormuz Strait but we do it because we have to do it, because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon." The U.S. is the world's top oil producer, but instability in the Gulf region has still affected oil prices, and many other countries are supplied by oil from Iran or Arab states that rely heavily on the Strait of Hormuz.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-strait-hormuz-oil-prices-red-sea-houthis/#post-update-6f576ee4 link copied The family of Army Lt. Tyler Feehan traveled with President Trump on Air Force One from Dover Air Force Base to the president's speech on Trump Accounts in Marietta, Georgia. Feehan was among the soldiers killed in action during attacks in Jordan.
During his remarks in Georgia, Mr. Trump said Feehan's family, whom he spoke with during a dignified transfer in Dover and on the plane, is "heartbroken." "When I go to Dover, I read charts on all of the young people. And some are unbelievable.
Some...
