Trump threatens to shoot boats laying mines as tension escalates in Strait of Hormuz

The USS Abraham Lincoln conducts US blockade operations in the Arabian Sea on April 16.

The US Navy currently has 19 ships in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, and seven ships in the Indian Ocean, a US official said Thursday.

The US military began enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports using much of that force on April 13 and has redirected at least 33 ships as of Thursday. US forces have also boarded at least three ships, including two in the Indian Ocean, roughly 2,000 miles from the Persian Gulf. The most recent boarding occurred overnight on Wednesday, when US forces boarded a “sanctioned stateless vessel” carrying oil from Iran in the Indian Ocean, the Defense Department announced.

As of last Monday, there were 15 ships in the area of responsibility of US Central Command, which is charged with managing US military operations in the Middle East.

The 19 ships currently in the area are:

Aircraft carriers

Destroyers

Littoral combat ships

Amphibious ready group

In addition, the USS John Finn, USS Pinckney, USS Higgins, USS Mustin, USS McFaul, USS John L. Canley and USS Santa Barbara are all operating in the Indian Ocean.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks after his meeting with his Greek counterpart in Athens on January 20.

Israel is ready “to return Iran to the dark ages,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday. Speaking at a situation assessment at the Defense Ministry, Katz said the Israeli military is ready to restart the war against Iran.

“The targets are marked,” he said.

Katz said Israel is “awaiting a green light” from the United States to resume the war and “complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty and to return Iran to the dark ages.”

On Thursday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene a meeting with top security officials to discuss Israel and Lebanon, an Israeli source told CNN.

A new round of direct talks between the US and Iran seems uncertain as both sides escalate rhetoric and actions. The US has seized vessels it says are carrying Iranian oil, while Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, with neither country showing any intent of backing down.

Though Israel has assassinated many of Iran’s top leaders, the regime appears to have survived the heaviest blows so far.

Two dry bulk carriers crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, according to the trade analytics company Kpler.

One of the carriers, Tema Express, is owned and operated by Hapag-Lloyd – making this the first confirmed transit of the strait by a vessel operated by the German carrier since the start of the conflict, Rebecca Gerdes, a data analyst at Kpler, told CNN.

Sailing under Liberia’s flag, Tema Express reappeared off the coast of Oman after being dark for nearly three weeks, Gerdes said.

The other ship that crossed the strait – LB Energy – is sailing under Panama’s flag.

Traffic through the strait has remained a trickle as carriers have been hesitant to transit the waterway, largely due to security concerns.

Iran has also imposed tolls on ships passing through the strait, sparking international backlash.

Officials from Israel and Lebanon will sit down for a second round of high-stakes direct talks this afternoon as Beirut looks to extend a tenuous ceasefire.

Today’s ambassador-level talks, mediated by the United States, come days before the US-brokered truce is set to expire. The 10-day ceasefire, which is aimed at pausing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, has been in place since last Friday.

Iran temporarily opened the Strait of Hormuz following the start of the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, and Tehran had sought to include that cessation of hostilities in a ceasefire deal between Iran and the US.

Hezbollah and Israel have both conducted military strikes during the truce, including an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon Wednesday that killed one journalist and seriously injured another. Lebanon’s prime minister accused Israel of war crimes after that attack.

Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad are expected to represent their countries at the direct talks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to participate for part of the meeting. The US delegation has added US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who was not present at last week’s talks. US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and State Department counselor Michael Needham will once again be part of the US team.

Lebanese negotiators want to extend the ceasefire by at least another month as part of efforts to end the conflict with Hezbollah, a political source with knowledge of the matter told CNN Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said it will maintain its presence in southern Lebanon and urged residents not to return to dozens of villages in the country’s south.

Huge crowds of mourners gathered in Baisariyeh, southern Lebanon, today for the funeral of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike yesterday.

Mourners hold images of journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral.

Mourners carry the coffin of journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral.

Flowers, a press flak jacket and helmet adorned the top of Amal Khalil's coffin.

Journalist Amal Khalil, who was killed in an airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, managed to call her family and the Lebanese military for help before her death, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Khalil, who worked for Lebanon’s left-leaning, pro-Hezbollah Al Akhbar newspaper, was killed while carrying out her journalistic work, while another journalist was seriously wounded, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. The attack prompted Lebanon’s prime minister to accuse Israel of war crimes.

The two journalists had taken shelter during a series of strikes in the town of Tayri in southern Lebanon when the building they were in was hit.

Khalil “stayed under the rubble for seven hours,” CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah told CNN on Thursday. Khalil was not immediately killed in the strike, she added.

Despite this, Qudah told CNN, the Red Cross was “blocked for seven hours, and when they reached her after seven hours, she was already dead.” She added that this type of “obstruction of rescue efforts may really amount to war crime.”

The Israeli military acknowledged that two journalists were injured as a result of the strike but said it “does not target journalists and acts to mitigate harm to them while maintaining the safety and security of its troops.”

It insisted it had not prevented teams from accessing the area and said that details surrounding the incident were under review. CNN cannot independently verify either the Lebanese or Israeli accounts.

CNN’s Charbel Mallo, Tamara Qiblawi, Sana Noor Haq and Dana Karni contributed to this report.

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Oil spills from the Iran war are visible from space

2:08 • Source: CNN

Oil spills from the Iran war are visible from space

2:08

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. Watch more from CNN’s Antoinette Radford in the video above.

A vendor sells vegetables at a market in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 2. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has rationed fuel, raised its price by a third and increased electricity tariffs since the Middle East war disrupted global energy supplies.

More than 30 million people around the world will be pushed back into poverty even if the Iran war conflict were to end tomorrow, the United Nations has warned.

“Worldwide, 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent of GDP (is) being lost. What does it mean for the more vulnerable countries in the world? It means 32 million people being pushed back into poverty,” Alexander De Croo, head of the UN Development Program, told Reuters.

“Remittances for the Asia-Pacific region, it’s 100 billion a year, which used to go directly from family to family, that is very often disappearing these days,” he said. “Even if the war would stop tomorrow, those effects, you already have them, and they will be pushing back more than 30 million people into poverty.”

De Croo, a former Belgian prime minister, said this was due to the spike in energy prices and growing food insecurity. On top of oil supplies, vast amounts of fertilizer also normally pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which has effectively been shut by Iran.

He warned that food shortages will peak in a few months.

US Central Command forces began setting conditions for clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz on April 11, as two US Navy guided-missile destroyers conducted operations.

President Donald Trump has ordered the US Navy to fire on any Iranian boats that are placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the critical energy chokepoint that carries about one-fifth of all global crude oil.

It’s not immediately clear what prompted Trump’s latest warning, but fears are growing that the presence of mines in the crucial waterway could spark economic repercussions that outlive the war itself.

When did Iran start laying mines?

In early March, CNN reported that Iran had begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, according to two people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue. Trump warned at the time that if mines were placed and not removed, Tehran would face consequences “at a level never before seen.”

The sources said in March that Iran could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway. But it doesn’t take that many to effectively keep the strait shut as commercial captains and ship owners don’t want to take the risk.

Later that month, Iran’s military said Tehran had “no need” to mine the Persian Gulf to assert its power and would use “every possible means to ensure security as necessary.”

What are the potential impacts?

Aside from the obvious risks to vessels in the region, and the safety of crew members, the presence of mines could delay the reopening of the waterway.

Pentagon officials briefed lawmakers this week on an intelligence assessment that found it could take up to six months to fully clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines after the war with Iran ends, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. A Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday that a six-month closure would be “unacceptable.”

How easily can the mines be removed?

US Central Command chief Adm. Bradley Cooper said last week the number of mines in the strait is “well within our ability to remove,” adding that the US has already been conducting de-mining operations.

Trump repeated today that US “mine ‘sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!”

President Donald Trump expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership on Thursday as he awaits a “unified” proposal to end the war.

“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday the administration believes it knows who inside Iran would sign off on a final deal to end the war, even as US officials detect internal divisions within the regime.

When CNN asked about the administration’s understanding of the ultimate decision-maker, Leavitt replied the White House and intelligence community “certainly has a good understanding.”

“However,” she went on, “we want to see a unified response and a unified proposal.”

CNN has reported that the US suspected a divide between Iran’s negotiating team, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Trump on Thursday also claimed the US has “total control over the Strait of Hormuz.”

“No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is ‘Sealed up Tight,’ until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!” he wrote in his post.

CNN’s Alayna Treene and Kevin Liptak contributed.