[Anchor]

The conflict between the United States and Iran is intensifying in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military has sunk another five Iranian oil tankers en masse just three days later, while Iran retaliated by launching missile attacks on U.S. military bases in the Middle East and capturing a U.S. uncrewed underwater vehicle.

Reporting from Washington, this is correspondent Lee Hanseok.

[Reporter]

As a U.S. missile strikes the center of an Iranian vessel, thick black smoke billows out alongside flames.

Enveloped in fierce flames, the ship tilts and sinks beneath the surface of the water.

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

This came in retaliation for Iran launching ballistic missile attacks against U.S. Navy warships twice over the past two days.

The U.S. administration has ratcheted up pressure to the highest level, slapping massive sanctions on 36 entities, including 27 Iranian commercial airlines.

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

Iran also launched a counterattack.

The Revolutionary Guard Corps fired 20 ballistic missiles toward the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, also known as the Al-Azraq U.S. military base.

The Jordanian military stated that 18 of the missiles were intercepted and two landed far from residential areas.

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

It further claimed to have inflicted massive damage by striking two U.S. destroyers, eight oil tankers, and 10 vessels attempting to pass through the strait.

The Al Wakrah Naval Base in Qatar was also attacked, resulting in a fire.

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

In addition to the direct clash between the U.S. and Iran, the frontline is becoming increasingly complex with Israel and Hezbollah, as well as Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels, making mediation by neighboring countries even more difficult.

(Video by Park Eunha | Video Editing by Kim Byung-jik)