Missile Retaliation... Heavy Clashes in the Strait of Hormuz

[Anchor]

Armed clashes between the United States and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz are escalating. The U.S. military has sunk another five Iranian oil tankers in three days, while Iran has retaliated by firing missiles toward U.S. military bases in the Middle East and capturing a U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle.

Washington correspondent Lee Hanseok reports.

[Reporter]

A U.S. missile strikes the center of an Iranian vessel, sending up flames and thick black smoke.

Engulfed in fierce flames, the ship lists and sinks beneath the surface of the water.

The U.S. military announced that it sank five oil tankers belonging to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps near the Gulf of Oman and Kharg Island.

The action is in retaliation for Iran's two ballistic missile attacks on U.S. Navy ships over the past two days.

The U.S. administration has ramped up pressure to the highest level, slapping massive sanctions on 36 targets, including 27 Iranian civilian airlines.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President : Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.]

Iran has also launched a counterattack.

The Revolutionary Guard fired 20 ballistic missiles targeting the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (Al-Zarqa) used by U.S. forces in Jordan.

The Jordanian military stated that 18 of the missiles were intercepted, while two landed in areas far from residential zones.

Iran also released video footage claiming it captured a cutting-edge autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle of the U.S. military in the Strait of Hormuz.

It further claimed that it inflicted massive damage by striking two U.S. destroyers, eight oil tankers, and ten vessels attempting to pass through the strait.

The Al Wakrah naval base in Qatar was also attacked, causing a fire.

As the Middle East's two major crude oil shipping routes, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, have effectively returned to a state of war, international oil prices briefly surpassed 100 dollars a barrel during trading.

Amid direct clashes between the U.S. and Iran, alongside complex frontlines such as Israel and Hezbollah, and Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels, mediation by neighboring countries is becoming increasingly difficult.

(Video reporting: Park Eunha, Video editing: Kim Byung-jik)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.