Strait of hormuz: The number of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz remains below ten. Preliminary shipping data released Wednesday showed that the number of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz remained below ten, reaching four on Tuesday, down from seven the previous day and significantly lower than the ten-day average of 18.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the decline in traffic through the strait, which handled a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before the Iran-Iraq War, comes in the wake of escalating attacks in the region. The data indicated that this total included two vessels departing the strait and two entering it.