US 'blew up' 6 Iranian boats, Iran hits navy ships amid fragile ceasefire

[0:00]The U.S. and Iran trading shots in the Gulf, threatening an already fragile ceasefire. Today, the U.S. military says it blew up six Iranian small boats in the Strait of Hormuz after Iran launched quote, multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at U.S. Navy ships and commercial vessels. The exchange of fire happening just hours after President Trump announced that the U.S. will begin helping guide stranded ships out of the straight. Meantime, the UAE is accusing Iran of renewed missile and drone attacks, the first since early April, including a drone strike on an Emirati oil port causing a large fire and injuring three people there according to officials. Let's go to CNN's Kristen Holmes at the White House right now. So Kristen, what is the administration saying as tensions with Iran appear to be escalating? It's not just the tensions that are escalating, Boris, we're also hearing it in President Trump's rhetoric. He just did a brief phone interview with Fox in which he said essentially that if the Iranians target U.S. ships in the area that they will be quote blown off the face of the Earth. Now, during this interview, he also said that the Iranians were more malleable now, that he did believe that there could be some kind of negotiation that led to a deal. but I've got to tell you, we are in a very different place now than we were at the end of last week. I was hearing from US officials at the end of last week, senior administration officials who were saying that they felt really good about the direction that this was going in. Instead, now we're starting to see this really seem to devolve. And President Trump posted on social media about what we were seeing in the straight saying, Iran has taken some shots at unrelated nations in respect to the ship movement, PROJECT FREEDOM, including a South Korean Cargo Ship. Then he essentially says that maybe South Korea should join them on this mission talking about the war in Iran. And then he goes on to talk about the fast boats, which we've heard about and then that tomorrow there's going to be another one of these press briefings by the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kane. But where we are right now talking to these officials, is it does not seem as though they are in a place where they feel that they can get to some kind of agreement here, which is very different again than what we heard at the end of last week. Kristen Holmes life force at the White House. Thank you so much. Let's turn to CNN National Security correspondent Tasha Bertrand. Natasha, what are you learning as the U.S. and Iran are trading strikes now? Yeah, Boris, our U.S. Central Command Chief Admiral Bradley Cooper, he held a call with reporters earlier today, he kind of outlined how the U.S. military is going about trying to guide these commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, essentially via a huge U.S. military presence that involves guided missile destroyers over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, unmanned platforms, so things like Reaper drones and 15,000 service members who are now state there to respond essentially, if Iran does attack any of these ships trying to pass through the straight. And that is exactly what happened this morning, according to Admiral Cooper. The Iranians began launching drones, cruise missiles and small boats at some of these ships, including U.S. Navy ships. And the U.S. military then responded by blowing up about six of these small Iranian boats using Apache and Seahawk helicopters. Now, it's important to note here that Admiral Cooper did not say whether or not this means that the ceasefire is over, given that the Iranians and the Americans are now trading shots essentially in that straight. He would only say that the U.S. is going to continue to act defensively to try to protect these ships as well as of course, its own assets. And one other thing is that he really emphasized that there are no escorts going on right now of these commercial vessels in this area by the U.S. military. Instead, they say that this kind of overarching defensive package that they have built up in that area is creating deterrence. Now, the Iranians, they might have a different perception of that because of course, they continue to try to take shots at these ships in the waterway. But the U.S. military saying, look, it's better for us to have this big overall presence here rather than escort each ship one by one through the straight, which could actually leave them more vulnerable in the end, Boris. The conflict over spilling from the tensions in the straight of Hormuz back onto land, back to where it was before the ceasefire went into place almost a month ago, as well as those uh missiles from Iran hitting the UAE. Well, three intercepted as you say, one heading that port of Fura, also in Oman, a tiny seaside Hamlet in the peninsula that sticks up into the straight of Hormuz. That was hit two people injured in a civilian residence there as well. So not just limited to the UAE, but Oman as well getting dragged back into this as CENTCOM has been saying, they've been able to support uh what President Trump is calling project freedom. And that is an effort for humanitarian reasons to guide commercial vessels that have been stuck now for two months inside the Gulf out through the straight of Hormuz out to their uh deliver their their goods to the rest of the world. Um that has involved at least one guided missile destroyer according to CENTCOM passing through the straight of Hormuz uh today and getting into the into the Gulf. Two US flag commercial vessels making it out, but then a confrontation according to the uh Iranian uh media. IRGC saying that they confronted with rapid uh and quick uh actions preventing a US naval vessel getting into the straight of Hormuz. Uh one at least one Iranian media saying that there were shots fired at the US vessels. Now CENTCOM has denied that. Now what does that very complicated and rapidly developing picture look like? It looks like what was conversations about a talks process has turned into into significant kinetic activity. The Iranians though, the ball is in their court to respond to the proposal put to them by the White House over the weekend. Nigga, is it fair to say that this is still technically a ceasefire if you're seeing that kind of attack against Gulf allies and the US responding against these boats in the straight? I think it's really in question. I spoke with Iranian officials on on Friday here and they said they were very concerned that any um sort of uh easing of blockades around the straight of Hormuz, they were very concerned that the United States would move in with the Navy to try to take control there. So what appears to be happening by projecting uh the effort to guide um these commercial vessels out of the straight of Hormuz. Um it has sort of upped if you will, that tension, that suspicion on Iran's part that plays into their lack of trust about what the United States real intentions here are. I have to say despite that, we've seen these spikes in tensions before and after a few days, things can potentially calm down. But Iran again has escalated beyond the tensions with the US and has now targeted the UAE and Oman and this really could lead to a potential escalation. um kinetic escalation. If it does and that continues for the next couple of days, then I think talks will really get sidelined and it'll be hard to restart them in a meaningful way. Even that's really in question just because this has played into Iran's fears. They would now say, why would we get around the table again, if this is what the United States is going to do. Nick Robertson live for us in Pakistan. Thank you so much. Erica. So let's take you now to the White House CNN's Kevin Liptak is there. So yesterday, Kevin, we had President Trump saying that the US was having very positive discussions with Iran. Now, on the heels of what we've just heard of course, from Nick, what changed? Well, I have to say we've been getting some mixed signals about exactly what the status of these talks are. You know, two days before the president said that they were productive, he said that the latest Iranian proposal was not acceptable. And so it's not precisely clear where exactly those talks stand and certainly it's unclear now that we have seen this exchange of fire between uh the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. You know, I think it was clear leading up to the president's decision to put this new initiative into place that he had been growing uh relatively frustrated with the stasis that had occurred. You know, the war was not happening because the ceasefire was in place, but the straight was also not reopened and the talks seem as if they were deadlocked. And this seems to have been his attempt to try and break some of that stalemate to get these ships flowing uh through this very critical waterway. But of course, the risk there is that the Iranians fire on some of these ships, the ceasefire is off and all of a sudden uh the US is back at war with Iran. It had been I think unclear this morning what exactly Project Freedom would entail. American officials were quick to point out that this was not an escort mission. The word the President used was guide these ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Just in the last hour, we have heard uh from the head of Central Command uh Brad Cooper describing this as a quote a multiple layer effort using aircraft using ships to sort of create a coordination cell uh that would allow these ships to go through the safest channel in the Strait of Hormuz. and just by their presence uh try and provide some reassurance to these shipping companies and to the pilots of these vessels that it was in fact safe to transit. Now what we've seen this morning is, yes, Central Command says that some vessels have gone through, but overall traffic is still down. So it remains to be seen just how effective this approach will be.