The U.S. has sunk 16 mine-laying ships near the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said, after Donald Trump threatened Iran over reports of mines in the key shipping route.
“I am pleased to report that within the last few hours, we have hit, and completely destroyed, 10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships, with more to follow!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday.
U.S. Central Command later wrote on X the military destroyed a total of 16 mine-laying ships near the strategically important Mid East waterway.
Trump’s announcement came minutes after the president warned against Iran placing mines in the waterway that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
“If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier Tuesday.
CBS News had reported Iran may be getting ready to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, citing U.S. officials.
People familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting on the matter told CNN Iran had already laid a few dozen mines in the key waterway in recent days.
Trump said the U.S. was using “the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait.”
The president was seemingly referring to the controversial boat strikes the U.S. has carried out in the Caribbean and Pacific, which have killed more than 150 people.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the U.S. “will not allow terrorists to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage.”
“At the direction of President Trump, @CENTCOM has been eliminating inactive mine-laying vessels in the Strait of Hormuz—wiping them out with ruthless precision,” Hegseth wrote on X. “To the weakened Iranian regime: you have officially been put on notice!”
Iran has threatened to attack any ship that tries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which is bordered in the north by the Middle Eastern country.
Ebrahim Jabari, a senior official with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said last week, “The strait is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guards and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze," according to Reuters, which cited Iranian state media.
Tankers that travel through the Strait of Hormuz transport oil and gas from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, the Associated Press reported. Most of the oil carried through the waterway is sold to Asia.
Oil prices surged Monday to nearly $120 a barrel, the highest since 2022. Oil prices later recovered, dropping back below $90 after Trump told CBS News the Iran war is “very complete, pretty much.”
Iran has “no navy, no communications, they've got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones,” Trump said.
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But uncertainty about how long the U.S. will continue its military campaign against Iran remains during the second week of the conflict.
A new Quinnipiac University poll found 18 percent of American voters think it will take weeks for the Iran war to end, 32 percent think it will take months and 26 percent think the conflict will last longer than a year.
At least 1,230 people in Iran have been killed in the conflict, according to the Associated Press. The joint U.S.-Israeli strikes killed the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has taken over as Iran’s supreme leader. At least seven American service members are dead over the conflict.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has decried Trump’s argument for starting the Iran war.
“The claim that Iran was planning on attacking the U.S. or U.S. Forces, whether preventively or preemptively, is a sheer and utter lie,” Araghchi wrote on X Tuesday. “The sole purpose of that lie is to justify Operation Epic Mistake, a misadventure engineered by Israel and paid for by ordinary Americans.”
Trump has insisted Israel did not force America’s hand to launch military strikes against Iran, in an effort the U.S. has dubbed Operation Epic Fury.
“I might have forced their hand,” the president told reporters.
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