Three cargo ships have been struck in the Strait of Hormuz after Donald Trump urged oil tankers to “show some guts” and sail through the passage off the coast of Iran.
The Thailand-flagged bulk carrier Mayuree Naree was hit by unknown projectiles on Wednesday, with images showing black smoke billowing out from the vessel.
The Japan-flagged container ship One Majesty and the Marshall Islands-flagged Star Gwyneth also came under fire in the narrow strait between Iran and Oman, where around one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes.
Iran has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli airstrikes against the country, and attacked several ships that attempted to pass through the waterway in the early days of the conflict.
The standoff has caused a steep rise in oil prices, which climbed above $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022 on Monday before falling back slightly.
Trump has encouraged tankers to go through the Strait of Hormuz and ignore the active war zone around them.
“These ships should go through the Strait of Hormuz and show some guts. There’s nothing to be afraid of. They have no navy. We sunk all their ships,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said Monday while recounting a phone call he had with the president.
Kilmeade added that Trump told him “there is risk in the region, the region is volatile, there are launchers. There’s just about 150 left, that’s just about 20 percent of totals. They can’t regenerate, they can’t make any more.”
There have been no confirmed injuries or deaths as a result of the attacks on the three ships on Wednesday.
But three crew members aboard the Thai-flagged Mayuree Naree are reported missing, the vessel’s operator, Precious Shipping, said in a statement.
The remaining 20 crew members were rescued and brought safely ashore in Oman.
Trump has acknowledged that ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz may require naval escorts. However, the U.S. Navy has reportedly refused requests from ships seeking military escorts through the strait since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28 because the risk is considered too high, unnamed sources told Reuters.
In a typically deranged Sunday Truth Social post, Trump warned Iran it would face U.S. strikes “TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far” if it blocked the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
