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U.S. Military Fires At, Seizes Iranian-Flagged Cargo Ship; Israeli Military Warns Residents Not to Approach Litani River; Officials Identify Eight Children and Killed by Louisiana Father. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 20, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, vowing retaliation. Iran says it will respond after the U.S. seized one of its ships right near the Strait of Hormuz.

And the U.S. energy secretary warns gas may not return to under $3 a gallon until, quote, next year. But President Trump just said his secretary is wrong.

And talks in jeopardy, the White House says, Vice President Vance will head to Pakistan for negotiations with Iran, as Tehran insists there are no discussions planned.

And then later, Ozempic personality. Some patients report feeling flat while on the popular weight loss drugs. We will discuss just ahead.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Also ahead, shocking mass shooting, truly shocking. A Louisiana man kills eight children, including seven of his own, and seriously injures his wife and another woman. What we're learning about the gunman.

Plus, health alert, cancer researchers are seeing promising signs from mRNA vaccines. Could this be a real medical breakthrough?

And later, it's Boston Marathon Monday. Right now, 30,000 runners are heading out on a grueling 26.2-mile journey. Will records be broken?

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

We begin this morning with breaking news in the Middle East, U.S. forces firing on and seizing an Iranian flag vessel known as the Touska in the Gulf of Oman, after the ship tried to break the U.S. blockade of Iran's ports. The U.S. military's Central Command releasing this incredible video showing the moments the U.S. forces from the USS Tripoli rappelled from a helicopter and boarded the ship.

CENTCOM says a guided missile destroyer, the USS Spruance, hit the Touska with several rounds after warning its crew to evacuate.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Motor vessel Touska, motor vessel Touska, vacate your engine room. Vacate your engine room. We're prepared to subject you to disabling fire.

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BLITZER: This morning, the Touska remains in U.S. custody, and Iran is now vowing to retaliate. All of this casting doubt on a second round of negotiations. Those talks were planned for this week in Pakistan, but Iran's Foreign Ministry says there were no plans for talks.

CNN correspondents are fanned out around the globe to bring you all the late-breaking developments in this very, very important story.

Let's go live, first of all, CNN White House Correspondent Alayna Treene. Alayna, the vice president, J.D. Vance, is expected to lead the U.S. delegation to Pakistan for these talks. You have some new reporting right now. What are you learning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. I think there's been a lot of questions, Wolf and Pam, about the timing of when the U.S. delegation is expected to part, when they will arrive in Pakistan and when will the second round of talks actually kick off.

Well, what we are learning is that the vice president is expected to leave Washington for Islamabad tomorrow. I am told that by multiple people familiar with the matter, but, of course, timing is fluid, particularly as we're hearing a lot of this heated rhetoric from both the Iranians and U.S. officials around what is happening as we approach the ceasefire expiration deadline of tomorrow evening.

Now, we are told that the talks -- the second round of talks between this delegation, the vice president, as I mentioned, but also Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Iranian officials are expected to take place in Pakistan on Wednesday.

Again, timing is fluid though, and we're seeing a lot of these things change very quickly. But the reason I also bring this up is we did hear President Trump, he told The New York Post in an interview today that the vice president was already on his way. But those comments that he gave actually seemed to be a bit premature. I spoke to the White House and they told me that there is no formal word on the timing of when Vance would depart, but said that we expect the delegation to be on the road soon, unclear when.

All to say there are a lot of moving parts here and there's also a lot of distrust, I think, on the Iranian side. We heard from the spokesperson for the foreign Iranian Foreign Ministry saying that there is no scheduled, planned round two of these talks. We also know that they're very angry about the attack on that tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

So, a lot, I think, that still needs to be worked out as we look ahead to that in-person meeting. Wolf? BLITZER: Lots going on. Alayna Treene in the White House, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Let's go live now to CNN Correspondent Paula Hancocks and Abu Dhabi. Paula, tell us more about how Tehran is responding to the seizure of this ship by U.S. forces.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, Tehran is furious that this ship has been seized at this point. We heard fairly quickly after the news emerged from the Iranian military saying that they would respond, they would retaliate and they've called it a, quote, maritime highway robbery.

But what we did hear from the Revolutionary Guard is that they haven't responded yet basically because they were family members of the crew that were on board this ship at the time, and they wanted to make sure that they were safe before carrying out their retaliation.

And I'll quote from Iranian state media here, given the current circumstances, once the safety of the families and crew of the vessel targeted by the United States is ensured, the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take the necessary action against the terrorist U.S. military. So, effectively saying once they know that those families, those crew are safe, that is when they will carry out their response.

No indication of what form that may take at this point, but they are clearly very angry about this seizure of the ship.

And it appears to be feeding into the potential talks that we were expecting to happen in Islamabad. As you just heard there, we've heard from the foreign ministry spokesperson saying that at this point there are no plans for any talks. We've heard from him as well saying, we don't believe in deadlines or ultimatums to secure Iran's national interests. So, we are seeing some pushback now from the Iranian side as to whether or not these talks will even happen.

We had over the weekend heard from sources that they were planning to send a delegation and that it was likely to be the same delegation with the parliament speaker at the head of it as we saw the weekend previously.

Now, there is definitely a trust deficit when it comes to Iran that we have heard from multiple officials that even if there is a deal, they're not sure they can trust the United States to stick to it. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Paula Hancocks, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: I want to go live right now to see it in Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond. He is reporting from Tel Aviv today.

Jeremy, Israel's military issued an urgent warning to residents of Southern Lebanon this morning. Tell us about that.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right, Wolf. The Israeli military continuing to urge residents of Southern Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of whom have been displaced from their homes over the course of this conflict, not to return to those areas of Southern Lebanon. We have nonetheless seen many of those residents beginning to return to their homes south of the Litani River, where they are finding enormous levels of destruction as a result of Israeli strikes in those areas.

What we have not yet seen are Lebanese residents returning to their homes closest to the Israeli border in this area where the Israeli military has now established somewhat of a security buffer zone, you know, stretching, you know, at least three miles basically into Lebanese territory, where you have Israeli military positions, thousands of Israeli troops still remaining in Southern Lebanon, even amid this temporary ten-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah has also been holding its fire as of now, as this ceasefire enters -- you know, as we approach a week now of this ceasefire being in effect.

What we are also monitoring are the comments from the Lebanese president seeking to kind of de-link the broader conflict between Israel and the United States on one side and Iran on the other from these ceasefire negotiations that we are now seeing between Israel and Lebanon. And that seems to speak to the broader concerns inside this region that this diplomacy between the United States and Iran, which ultimately managed to bring Lebanon into the fold of this broader ceasefire agreement, concerns that if that diplomacy breaks down and we see a hot war reignite between the United States and Iran, that that could also put Lebanon back in the crossfire with Hezbollah perhaps striking Israel, Israel striking back as well.

So, for now, we expect that diplomacy to continue with the next meeting between Israeli and Lebanese officials scheduled for Thursday in Washington, according to an Israeli official. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy. A quick question, there's some growing backlash right now after a photo shared on social media shows an Israeli soldiers seemingly hitting the head of a Jesus Christ statue with a hammer or axe in Lebanon.

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What is Israel saying about this?

DIAMOND: Yes, that's right, Wolf. This image which has now traveled around the world and, you know, quite shocking image for many Christians in Lebanon and around the world, it is now being investigated by the Israeli military. They say that the actions by the soldier will be dealt with, that punitive measures will be taken and insisting that it is inconsistent with the values expected of Israeli soldiers. The Israeli prime minister himself has also commented on this, saying that he was stunned and saddened to see these actions, and he condemned the actions of this soldier as well.

We have, of course, previously seen incidents such as this by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, in Lebanon as well, not just targeting Christians, but also Muslim places of worship. And in this case, we are seeing a swift reaction from the Israeli military and Israeli political leaders. Wolf?

BLITZER: Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for us, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Still ahead, do weight loss drugs, flatten patients' emotions? We're going to discuss this so-called Ozempic personality.

BLITZER: And later horrifying attack, a Louisiana man kills seven of his own children and their cousin in America's deadliest mass shooting in more than two years. We have details just ahead right here in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: We continue our breaking news coverage of the war with Iran, the United States seizing an Iranian flagship after firing on it in the Gulf of Oman. The ship was trying to break the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. And hours from now, a U.S. delegation is expected to arrive in Pakistan for talks on ending the war.

Joining us now is Mark MacCarley. He's a retired U.S. Army major general. General MacCarley, thanks so much for joining us.

Given everything that's happening right now, and a lot is happening, Iran's threat to retaliate against the U.S. over that ship being seized, how do you expect this to play out in the next few days at least?

MAJ. GEN. MARK MACCARLEY (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Wolf, I think it's really important to say that the optimum, the best course of action right now would be that these anticipated talks materialize and something comes from those. But you have two different sets of objectives. Iran wants to maintain its uranium arsenal. Iran wants to control the Strait of Hormuz. And, of course, U.S. has significant interest in completely degrading and removing the uranium supplies and as well opening the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.

So, what we see is there is no clear definition. I would say that if you go through what I call the analysis of what could occur next, if the talks either don't take place or they collapse as they did a couple of days ago, then the U.S., from the U.S. perspective, is left with either maintain this sort of quasi status quo in which we have the blockade, we have the strait still closed, and we have threats of further retaliation on both sides.

The Iranian expressed statement about retaliation this morning, but also the U.S. statement from President Trump that we're going to bomb, bomb, bomb civilian infrastructure, power generation, bridges, all those sorts of things that allow a civilian population in Iran to continue their daily lives. That's one. The second would be that the U.S. takes an even more aggressive stance, and that would be that it considers sort of an amphibious assault on four or five islands that are sort of contiguous, that are indeed contiguous to the Strait of Hormuz. To control those islands would be very effective and would help to break the closure by the Iranians. But the challenge there, of course, is whether the U.S. is willing to commit soldiers and Marines' lives in something that will be one heck of a contest.

BLITZER: It certainly would be.

MACCARLEY: And then the other alternative -- the other alternative, quite frankly, is that we do what we did in 1987, as some of us recall, and that is we flag the ships, ships that are certainly within our scope of allies and flag them as U.S. ships, and then commit a significant number of naval resources to escort those ships through the straits and further up into the Persian Gulf. But the situation, as you have explained multiple time, is very risky and there is no clear cut in state now.

BLITZER: And as you have you noted, Iran is now promising major retaliation for the U.S. seizing of that Iranian ship. Between that and keeping the strait closed, what military leverage does Iran actually have available at this point?

MACCARLEY: I think the strongest tool, and you've asked for military leverage, and I'm going to say that Iran's most powerful element, its source of strength is that shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. Because the economic already, economic devastation, the impact around the world because of the absence of oil supplies, whether that be in Western Europe or even China, has been significant.

We have stories coming out of countries around the world in which food supplies have been jeopardized because you don't have the transportation assets, that people are hungry, and, of course, from a manufacturing industrial standpoint, the absence of petroleum products is truly significant and quite harmful to that process of maintaining the economies of these countries.

When Iran, to get to your point, launched further ballistic missiles, sure, but its strength is a shutdown of the strait.

BLITZER: Retired U.S. Army Major General Mark MacCarley, thank you so much for joining us.

And coming up, Pamela?

BROWN: A shocking and horrific attack, a Louisiana man kill seven of his own children and their cousin. CNN's Isabel Rosales, is in Shreveport where it happened. What are you learning, Isabel?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a deadly rampage out of Louisiana after a father turns his gun on his own family. I'll bring you a live report from where it happened and the new community reaction coming in this morning.

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BROWN: Authorities in Louisiana have released the identities of eight children shot dead over the weekend, the youngest just three years old.

Investigators say Shamar Elkins, seen in these new images we just received, fatally shot his seven children and a cousin. The tragedy marks the nation's deadliest shooting, mass shooting since 2024. One neighbor who said their children played together, described seeing the covered body of one of the victims.

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LIZA DAMMING, VICTIMS' NEIGHBOR: Their baby, their baby laying there on the roof of that home, he's even trying to get away.

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BROWN: So, let's go live now to CNN Correspondent Isabel Rosales on the ground there in Shreveport. Isabel, there are a lot of details to uncover and this truly shocking attack. What are you learning?

ROSALES: Pam, it's awful, an awful, awful crime that has left this community heartbroken, stunned, angry, at a loss of words, all of it.

Now, this mass shooting spanned across three different homes, one of which is this gray home right behind me. As we're zooming in, this is the home where those eight children were shot and killed. And it's been heartbreaking to see this morning as the sun has come up, all these other children in the neighborhood lovingly being pushed out of the door by their parents. They have backpacks on, they're going to school. And to know that the children here will no longer be able to do that, their lives stolen out of them.

The gunman is Shamar Elkins. Shreveport Police said that he began his deadly rampage by targeting his wife, shooting her, and then moving onto this home shooting his children mostly. Seven of the eight are his children. The eighth is a cousin to those siblings, and then leading police on a chase. He carjacked a driver, leading police on a chase into a nearby parish, where ultimately police officers, shot and killed him.

Now, those eight children, five were girls, three were boys, the youngest, just three years old, the eldest, 11 years old. Two women were hurt, very badly hurt, one of which was his wife.

Now, this morning, I saw a school bus attendant parking the bus right over here, getting out of the bus, carrying balloons, carrying flowers, coming up here to pay her respect. This is what she said.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We live on the other side of town, but we wanted to come by and share our condolences to the family. You know, this is -- it's just heartbreaking. It really is.

We just wanted to come and do something. It might not be a whole lot, but it's something, you know?

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ROSALES: And there was also a 13-year-old teen boy who jumped from a roof trying to escape this mass shooting. We're told by Shreveport Police that although he had a couple of broken bones, he is expected to be okay. Pam?

BROWN: Wow, what a horrid story. Isabel Rosales in Shreveport, thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

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