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Inflation Steady in February; Russia Helping Iran in Drone Warfare?; U.S. Missile Fragments at Site of Deadly Iranian School Strike?; Attacks Escalate on Ships in Strait of Hormuz. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 11, 2026 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Trump says the war will end -- quote -- "soon," but Iran isn't giving up. Tehran says it has launched what it calls its heaviest operation since the start of the war.

Stable, but for how long? A new inflation report says the issue of rising prices was under control last month, but there's a catch. The report was before the war and before oil prices shot up.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And deadly weather tearing through the Central U.S., storms dropping a historic amount of hail in one state, while claiming two lives. We're going to bring you their story and the forecast, as we follow these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Breaking news on the war with Iran.

Just moments ago, President Trump was outside of the White House speaking with reporters as he was leaving for an economic speech. Right now, gas prices across the U.S. are surging, as Iran keeps one of the world's main oil routes on lockdown, all of this today triggering the largest ever release of emergency oil.

Earlier, the president told Axios the war would end soon because there was -- quote -- "practically nothing left to target." The president adding: "The war is going great. We are way ahead of the timetable. We have done more damage than we thought possible even in the original six-week period," which, Boris, is maybe a little longer than some people may remember it originally being labeled.

SANCHEZ: There has been a shifting timetable for when this will end, and the question now is, are we near the end of this operation or could this be an effort to calm nerves, especially over those oil prices?

Let's focus on the Strait of Hormuz, that critical transit point for energy. The U.S. military has destroyed multiple Iranian ships there after sources say the country was beginning to line the channel with explosive mines. Today, Tehran is striking back in retaliation.

Here's what the president just said about this.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think they should use the strait.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: In my opinion, look, we took out just about all of their mine ships in one night. We're up to boat number 60. I didn't realize they had that big a navy. I would say it was big and ineffective. But every one of their ships, just about all of their navy is gone at the bottom of the sea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That is a significant update if it comes to be that their ability to lay out mines has been stifled.

We can't overstate how vital the strait is to the global economy. Normally, 20 percent, a fifth of the world's oil supply moves through their daily. That's roughly 20 million barrels each day.

Let's go live to the Middle East and Tel Aviv with CNN anchor Erin Burnett -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, well, Boris, you're talking about the Strait of Hormuz.

I was talking to a shipping executive not long ago telling me, the reality of it is, is that at this point there's so much concern over safety for these vessels, safety for the crews, whether they're actually going to be attacked, they have essentially turned off what would be the ship equivalent of a transponder.

And we can see that. When you look at the maritime tracking sites, a lot of these ships have -- quote, unquote -- "disappeared." And that's what you're seeing after one of them was hit this morning. Obviously, the United States was also targeting some of those Iranian ships, with the latest estimate that the U.S. Congress had had that Iran had about 6,000 mines, so, obviously, crucial questions there.

And also we are learning here, our Jeremy Diamond -- I'm just giving you this latest headline, that Israel is right now preparing for an expansion of attacks from Iran and Hezbollah. When you're talking there, Boris and Brianna, about that Iran is preparing for an onslaught, also hearing that here from both Iran and Hezbollah.

I was speaking to a senior Israeli official earlier, though, who is emphasizing, as they have been continuing to do, that they say things are going very much ahead of schedule. Obviously, that jibes with what Brianna was just reporting, but also saying that they still have what they are calling a lot of surprises. And then they're also very careful to lay out that their objectives remain unchanged, and that is regime change and the end of the nuclear program, obviously significant that they continue to emphasize that, given, to say the least, the vacillation in President Trump's characterization of the goals here.

So, obviously preparing for that onslaught. There were missile warnings today, missiles coming in, interception.

Nic Robertson is in Kuwait.

So, Nic, let me just ask you what you're seeing there, in light of what we're hearing here. Jeremy's reporting that Israel is preparing for an expansion of the attacks from Iran and Hezbollah.

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And I know on the ground, where you are, you have also seen an uptick when we're hearing this could be what Iran says is its biggest onslaught so far, no doubt would include those targets in the Gulf that have been front and center, where you are.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes.

Today, Oman, this has been largely out of the war, right at the sort of far end of the Gulf and indeed the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, from where I am, at the top end in Kuwait, Oman was hit, the UAE hit on several occasions, Bahrain hit earlier today.

Up here in Kuwait, there were eight incoming drones, seven of those were intercepted. One fell in the open area. But I can tell you what we're hearing in the skies above us is the sound of jet fighter aircraft. There's no commercial aircraft here. There's no civilian planes in the skies here. And these are -- sound like jet fighters that we're hearing.

And when you hear that sound here in Kuwait, that means they're up in the air on defensive measures, defensive measures, trying to shoot down incoming missiles, not just here, of course. The jets can stretch further down the Gulf, protect some of the other Gulf countries in this region.

So that's part of the bigger U.S. effort, along with Gulf partners, to defend the skies here against those Iranian attacks. So it does appear -- we're not hearing any impacts here, but it does appear as if those defensive measures are under way right now, Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

And, Boris and Brianna, as I send it back to you, Iran is very much trying to posture not just that their biggest onslaught is perhaps coming now, but also that they have weapons that they have not yet used, and not just ones that the United States and Israel may be aware of, like hypersonic missiles that we have not seen used yet.

But they are also, specifically an IRGC commander referencing, they say, underwater missiles that they say they have not used yet, that they are about to potentially bring into this. As to whether that is more bellicosity and a threat versus reality, at this point, of course, we just don't know, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And that would, of course, be a significant escalation.

Erin, thank you so much.

We will go back to Erin throughout the afternoon.

Let's dig deeper now on President Trump signaling that the war with Iran will end soon, telling Axios that there's -- quote -- "practically nothing left to target inside the country."

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us at the White House.

Kristen, our reporting indicates that the president's advisers have been essentially trying to get him to a point where he sees an off- ramp. They have been trying to expedite the end of this.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's not just advisers. It's Republicans -- excuse me, Boris -- across the board.

I mean, there are a number of Republicans I have spoken to, allies of President Trump's, who don't want to see this go on any longer, and they're starting to feel as though this is a forever war. And what we're hearing now from really across the board in the administration is that this is President Trump's war and time to decide when it is over.

In fact, he said that to Axios as well. I want to pull up one of the quotes. He said -- this was after he talked about all the different sites being destroyed. He said, "little of this and a little of that," talking about things that could be left to strike.

And then he says: "Any time I want it to end, it will end." And that is something we heard yesterday from the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. It's something that we heard from Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, saying that this is squarely President Trump's decision.

Now, just moments ago, President Trump on his way out the door did talk about some of the strikes that the U.S. and Israel have made against Iran. Here's what he said.

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QUESTION: What more do you need to do militarily for this operation to end?

TRUMP: More of the same. And we will see how that all comes out. Right now, they are -- they have lost their navy. They have lost their air force. They have no anti-aircraft apparatus at all. They have no radar. Their leaders are gone.

And we could do a lot worse, you want to know the -- we're leaving certain things that, if we take them out, or we could take them out by this afternoon, in fact, within an hour, they literally would never be able to build that country back.

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HOLMES: So, of course, that would beg the question as to why wouldn't they, if that's what they wanted to do was completely destroy all of Iran's infrastructure. Now, we also know that there have been conversations behind the scenes that they don't want to actually do that.

But this is all one large question, Boris, and one that we have gotten so many different answers on, which is, what is the actual timeline here? I mean, I heard Brianna saying that President Trump is saying they're ahead of timeline.

Well, what's the timeline? At one point, he said four weeks. At one point, Hegseth said three to eight weeks. It seems as though we have moved away from weeks and just onto vibes, because it's all about when President Trump says he wants this war to end.

But there are multiple different entities involved in this war. We have Iran. We have Israel. And we have the United States. So it's unclear that what President Trump could decide on his own would just flat out end the war. But that seems to be what the messaging is right now out of the White House.

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SANCHEZ: And exactly how they quantify whether those objectives that have been laid out repeatedly over the last week-plus have actually been met. Still a lot of questions.

Kristen Holmes at the White House, thank you so much for that -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Iran's state broadcaster is releasing some new photos of missile debris that it says was recovered from the deadly strikes at an elementary school in Southern Iran.

According to a CNN analysis, the debris pictured here appears to be from an American Tomahawk cruise missile. Now, we should note, it's not possible to know if that debris is from the school or it's from a nearby naval base. State media is reporting at least 168 children and 14 teachers were killed in the strikes.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is covering this story for us as we are waiting for an official report from the Pentagon.

What's important, though, here is, we're hearing from the president. And he seems to just be saying, oh, I don't know -- I don't really know anything about this.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, first, of course, he said that he thought, Iran might have done

it. Iran does not have Tomahawk missiles. The United States certainly does. And this is the latest evidence that we are seeing that Tomahawks were used in the strikes at least surrounding the area, right? We can't independently confirm what the Iranians are saying that these particular debris fragments were from that school strike.

But we do know, based on previous CNN reporting that Tomahawks were flying and they did strike an IRGC naval facility right next to the school, at the very least. And so Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has repeatedly said, look, we're still investigating this. The White House has said we're still investigating this.

But all signs right now are pointing to this being having been conducted by the United States. And the Pentagon has pledged as well along with the White House to release that final report into the school strike. But, of course, it would be one of, if not the biggest incidents of civilian casualties conducted by the U.S. military.

KEILAR: Yes.

And we're also hearing from a soldier who was injured in a drone strike by Iran that happened in Kuwait. Tell us about this.

BERTRAND: Yes, that strike by an Iranian drone that killed six U.S. service members at that installation in Kuwait, one of the service members who was there at the time who was injured has now spoken to ABC News and talked a little bit about what that experience was like.

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SGT. FIRST CLASS CORY HICKS, INJURED IN DEADLY DRONE ATTACK: I seen the nose of that drone pop through. And as soon as it did, I knew what it was. It was either a missile or a drone. So I turned to my right, and that's when it blew up and just blew the whole building apart.

She was literally five feet from me when that happened. I think the -- if I looked -- if I looked -- when I looked over my left shoulder, the drone impacted basically right above her.

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BERTRAND: So he was speaking from his hospital bed at Walter Reed Medical Center.

And the grand total right now, according to the Pentagon, of service members who have been injured as part of the war between the U.S. and Iran is around 140. However, they have said that many of those service members have since returned to duty. But, of course, it's a far higher number than we first heard from the Pentagon, which was that about eight service members had been wounded.

KEILAR: Yes, significantly higher.

Natasha, thank you so much for the very latest on those stories. Still to come, exclusive reporting that you will only see here on CNN,

evidence that Russia is not only giving Iran information on the location of U.S. military targets, but also specific tactical advice on how to attack them.

Plus: following the money. Right now, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime accountant is getting deposed by the House Oversight Committee. Hear what lawmakers are hoping to learn from him.

And then later: nonstop rain, baseball-sized hail and deadly tornadoes ripping across the U.S.

We're tracking that much more here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: Now to a CNN exclusive.

A Western intelligence official says Russia is helping Iran with advanced drone tactics to strike U.S. targets and other sites in the Middle East. CNN had previously reported on intelligence sharing between the two countries, but this is the first confirmation of Moscow providing specific tactical advice.

Let's get the latest from CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, who has the exclusive new reporting, and joins us live from Jordan.

Nick, what more did this official tell you?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, it's important to point out we're talking here about the knowledge that Russia has essentially learned using drones on the front line in Ukraine being given to the Iranians, three years' worth of battlefield expertise basically being handed over.

Now, the Western intelligence official I spoke to said that, while assistance began as being general, it's now become more concerning and includes what they refer to as targeting strategies.

Now, they didn't spell out exactly what they meant, but Russia has learned over its use of these same Shahed drones originally designed and built by Iran, but now mass-produced by Russia themselves, Moscow's learned that if it launches huge waves -- sometimes, Ukraine is subjected to a thousand in one night.

And, sometimes, I've seen on the radar these drones, they duck, weave, change altitude, make circles, suddenly change direction, purely to confuse and evade air defense systems. If they use those tactics, they can be increasingly successful. Ukraine has adapted. It has exceptionally cheap and quite effective interceptors that it's built, $2,000 tiny things used to take out the $30,000 Shahed drones.

Ukraine is adapting constantly, and then Russia adapts back. And so I think the concern here is that, if the Iranians are receiving basically all the things that Russia has learned over these three years of drone warfare and attacking Ukrainian cities, that could be a significant boost to Iran.

And we have seen too that a lot of the times, when Gulf nations, when the U.S. are indeed attacked, it is drones that are effective in getting through quite sophisticated air defense. That's a key concern.

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And it builds on what we have heard from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said in a recent interview that Russia is helping Iran with drones and is also sending experts and potentially that same technology I just talked about, the small interceptors, to countries like here, Jordan, and elsewhere in the Gulf, to assist basically the more moneyed Gulf nations to bridge the gap between what they are able to do and what they can afford and what Ukraine has learned on the front lines.

But a real sign here that Russia is taking its expertise, according to this official, and trying to exact a price against the U.S. and its allies, probably remembering that the United States has been giving intelligence and weaponry to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion there -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

Nick, given the tension over the Strait of Hormuz and essentially the freezing of petroleum and energy transports through that area, it's notable that Russia is also benefiting from that.

WALSH: Yes, I mean, look, the U.S. issued a general license removing some of the sanctions against what many refer to as the dark fleet, which is designed to sort of alleviate sanctions so that some of this oil could be sold and basically reduce the price on the open market.

That will line Moscow's coffers. It's unclear the extent to which that will really put money into the Kremlin war machine. It's a new policy. It takes time for these things to really be impacted. But, ultimately, it certainly provided a short-term boost for Moscow.

And while I think many see in the global geopolitical picture the idea, after Venezuela, a Russian ally being attacked by the United States and having its leadership removed, Iran, another Russian ally being attacked by the United States and Israel and having its top leadership removed, that clearly is damaging to the Kremlin's position globally.

They perhaps have seen an opportunity here, because clearly the Iranian IRGC seek a longer conflict here, have the tenacity to potentially just stick it out, regardless of how heavily they have been hit, have these cheap drones. They are effective through air defenses. And perhaps we're seeing a moment here where Moscow feels it can claw something back from what ultimately at the start looked like, again, disaster for them.

SANCHEZ: Nick Paton Walsh, live for us in Jordan, thank you so much for that reporting.

So, inflation is holding steady, but the U.S. war with Iran could change that. We're going to break down the latest data when we come back.

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KEILAR: There is a critical report on inflation out today, but it has a big asterisk, and that is that the numbers show inflation holding steady, but the data was collected before the war with Iran sent energy prices into the stratosphere.

CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now.

That's a big asterisk there, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is.

And February's numbers taken alone is good news in the sense that inflation has not risen on an annual basis, but the bad news is that is likely coming in March, this month, when we get those numbers, because of all the higher prices we have seen with oil and gasoline.

But let's look at what we saw in February, on an annual basis, inflation holding steady at 2.4 percent, still slightly elevated from that 2 percent target that we're looking for, and, on a monthly basis, up 0.3 percent. That is in line with what was expected.

In terms of what we look at every single month, food, shelter, energy, what we saw with food prices is that they rose 0.4 percent, both at the grocery store and eating out at restaurants, energy prices rising 0.6 percent, coming off of the previous month in January when they fell 1.5 percent.

But, as you note, this is before the war in Iran, when we saw rising energy costs, and then shelter, the biggest share of what we spend every single month, rising 0.2 percent. And here's some details from the report that maybe you at home have noticed, the price of lettuce up 12.2 percent. That is a significant jump in one month alone.

That's because of shortages in the vegetable space. Oil, interestingly enough, was already on the rise, more than 11 percent. And apparel, so clothing, this is probably passed through from businesses, the tariffs, to consumers, apparel, clothing costing a little bit more because we import so much.

And then some price savings for consumers in the month of February, eggs again falling 3.8 percent, continuing to fall as supply increases, and then motor vehicle insurance and used cars and trucks, those are higher monthly payments, so some savings there.

But, as you mentioned, this is in the rearview mirror. What is to come is a little more daunting and a little more important to look at, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Vanessa, thank you so much for taking us through that.

Vanessa Yurkevich.

Next: new CNN reporting on the injuries suffered by Iran's new supreme leader on the first day of the bombardment by U.S. and Israel.

Stay with us.

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