Three vessels were damaged in incidents across the Persian Gulf's key maritime artery, where about a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies travel, as Iran continued to launch air attacks around the Middle East.
Commercial ships sailing under the flags of Thailand, Japan, and the Marshall Islands were targeted by unknown projectiles across the Strait of Hormuz, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a shipping security monitor, said on March 11.
While no crew members were reported dead following the attacks, UKMTO advised ships in the Strait of Hormuz to "transit with caution and report any suspicious activity," adding investigations into the incidents were ongoing.
Separately, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it had struck a Liberian-flagged vessel in the Strait Of Hormuz that it claimed was owned by Israel.
Tehran has indicated it considers the ships transferring oil to the United States, Israel, and "their partners" as "legitimate" targets.
"We won't allow even one liter of oil to reach the US, Zionists, and their partners. Any vessel or tanker bound to them will be a legitimate target," said Iran's military command spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari on March 11.
Just off the shores of Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the shipping lane narrows to a width of less than 4 kilometers, the attacks are the latest in at least a dozen incidents since US and Israeli forces began their military campaign against Iran on February 28. Those attacks have prompted retaliatory strikes by Iran on targets in many neighboring Gulf states.
US Forces 'Eliminated' 16 Iranian Mine-Layers
The flurry of strikes on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz follows US President Donald Trump's earlier warning to Iran in which he demanded Tehran remove any mines in the area or face "military consequences" that will be at "a level never seen before."
"If Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait…we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on March 10, adding that US forces would "permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait."
Later in the day, US Central Command said the American military had "eliminated multiple Iranian naval vessels...including 16 minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz."
As Iran continued its retaliatory strikes aimed at its oil-exporting neighbors, disruptions of shipping in the region plunged the global energy economy into crisis, with oil prices increasing by more than 5 percent on March 11.
Zolfaqari said global trade should prepare for oil prices to rise to "$200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security which you have destabilized."
In response to these developments, the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from its emergency reserves into the market.
"The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA Member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Iran war "must be stopped before it becomes bigger and completely engulfs the region in flames."
"There will be more loss of life and property, and the cost to the global economy will increase even further," Erdogan added, as more Iranian attacks were reported across the Middle East on the 12th day of the war.
UAE's emirate of Dubai said on March 11 that two drones crashed near the city's airport, leaving four people injured -- two citizens of Ghana, one from India, and one from Bangladesh.
Iran Threatens To Target US, Israeli Banks
In a separate development on March 11, Iran announced its forces will target economic centers and banks belonging to the United States and Israel, saying the decision was taken in response to the "enemy" targeting a bank in Iran.
A spokesperson for Khatam al-Anbiya, the Iranian military's joint operational command, called the alleged attack an "illegitimate and unconventional" act in the war that had left Tehran's "hands free to target economic centers and banks belonging to" the United States and Israel "in the region."
The statement urged people in countries where US and Israeli banks are located not to remain within a 1-kilometer radius of them.
While Khatam al-Anbiya's statement did not name the bank or its location, only saying it was struck overnight, Bank Sepah -- one of Iran's largest state-owned banks -- later said one of its branches in Tehran was hit by a missile early in the day.
Separately, Iran's state television channel IRINN reported the employees working in the bank were on the extra shift to prepare March salary payments. According to the report, a "high" number of people were killed in the attack.
There was no immediate comment from the United States or Israel. Later on March 11, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced a new "wide-scale wave of strikes targeting Iranian terror regime infrastructure across Iran."
"Simultaneously, the IDF has begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut," Israel's military added in a statement published on Telegram.
