U.K. Maritime Trade Operations reported two separate shooting incidents in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday morning. The first involved an unnamed cargo ship roughly eight nautical miles off the Iranian coast; a crew member said the vessel was fired upon and then stopped. UKMTO said there were no casualties and no reported damage in that encounter.
In a separate incident, UKMTO said a gunboat linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked a container ship in the eastern Strait, about 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman. The container ship was reportedly approached and fired on without warning, with the IRGC fire causing significant damage to the vessel’s bridge. UKMTO reported no injuries and no environmental impacts from that strike.
President Donald Trump posted on social media that Iran is ‘collapsing financially’ and ‘starving for cash,’ repeating his account that Iranian officials sought to reopen the Strait of Hormuz a few days earlier. He said unnamed sources told him Iran requested relief about four days ago, and that the U.S. has maintained pressure and a blockade as leverage in hopes of a deal. Trump also warned that easing pressure now would jeopardize any future agreement and asserted that recent U.S. military actions have heavily degraded Iranian forces and leadership.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for extending a ceasefire window to allow diplomatic efforts to continue, called on both parties to respect the truce, and said Pakistan would continue working toward a negotiated settlement.