The military operation against Iran entered its thirteenth day on Thursday. Iran and its proxies in Lebanon continue to launch strikes, including against oil tankers in the Gulf, while Israel says they scored “extensive” hits on IRGC infrastructure overnight.
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**Wednesday’s live updates below. All updates in Eastern time**
06:50 AM: Iran is launching sea drones against oil tankers
At least three oil tanker ships have been struck by Iran in the Gulf overnight, one off the coast of the UAE and two off Basra, Iraq. We have some images of one of the strikes in Iraq and they are very dramatic, with a huge fireball filling the air.
The BBC states one of the ships struck off the Iraqi coast, the Safesea Vishnu, is US-owned but is Marshall Islands flagged. The practice of flagging is to allow ship owners to operate their craft under lower regulatory burdens and while paying fewer costs. It has now been long accepted but a persistent conversation in maritime security circles is how long the net providers of maritime security like the United States and United Kingdom will be content to provide expensive defensive cover to ship owners who fly the cheapest flag of convenience.
It isn’t like the Marshall Islands can protect shipping on the high seas, it doesn’t even have a military.
The second tanker struck off Iraq is Greek owned and Maltese flagged, states, the BBC. The third, hit off the UAE, was Chinese owned and Liberia flagged. Curiously, the broadcaster notes the ship was transmitting “China Owner” at the time it was attacked, the owners having reckoned advertising they they weren’t party to the conflict would have protected them from strikes. Wrongly, as it transpires.
It is stated the Safesea Vishnu was struck by a “white-coloured unmanned speed boat carrying explosives” — a sea drone, or ‘Uncrewed Surface Vessel’ (USV).
We’ve known about Iran’s so-called ‘Mosquito Fleet’ of several hundred small attack boats for years. From Chinese-made anti-ship missile launchers strapped to commercial speedboats to explosive-laden boats for USS Cole style-attacks, they have featured comparatively little over the past two weeks — so far.
Perhaps the most impactful use of such vessels so far has been by the Ukrainian intelligence service, who claim to have sunk several Russian warships using drone swarms. Again, this has taken the form of explosive-packed speedboats with fast data connections for guidance.
An oil tanker burns after being hit by an Iranian strike in the ship-to-ship transfer zone at Khor al-Zubair port near Basra, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo)
06:30 AM: Missiles and drones continue to hit Israel
There was a “major” rocket and drone barrage launched from Lebanon against Israel overnight, reports The Times of Israel, noting controversy today over an alleged failure by the Defence Forces (IDF) to keep the public sufficiently informed. The IDF said they attempted to mitigate the attack by striking the missile launchers in Lebanon, and by shooting down rockets and drones as they few to Israel. There were 200 rocket launches in all, and the IDF said most were intercepted or landed harmlessly.
Meanwhile, the IDF said they’d launched “extensive” airstrikes against Iran this morning targeting “terrorist infrastructure, weapons storage facilities, central headquarters” and a nuclear weapons compound. They said: “The ‘Taleghan’ compound, [is] a site used by the Iranian regime to advance nuclear weapons capabilities. The compound was used to develop advanced explosives and conduct sensitive experiments as part of the covert ‘AMAD’ project in the 2000s.”
06:15 AM: Iran strikes the Italians
An Italian military base in Iraq was hit by a missile in the early hours of the morning. No injuries, but it may illustrate how Iran is continuing to lash out everywhere with what remaining missile launch facilities it has, assuming the missile was Iranian at all.
The Italian government has condemned the attack, but said they wanted to conduct a “very thorough investigation” before saying definitively who they think was behind it. They also said the Italian base is packaged together with bases belonging to other nations, so they also questioned whether they were even the intended target.
Quite a web to untangle. Read more here.