U.S. launches more Iran strikes as threats to oil trade deepen

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.

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."

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.

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