Illustrative image. (U.S. Navy)
The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz on March 10.
The command made the announcement on X, attaching a video showing strikes hitting eight vessels of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN) and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy. Only one of the vessels appeared to be an actual mine-laying vessel, most of the rest were missile boats.
Strikes on five other Iranian military vessels were seen in footage released earlier in the day by CENTCOM. Again, most of the vessels hit were missile boats. One, however, was a Shahid Soleimani-class corvette of the IRGC Navy, and another was a Ghadir-class midget submarine.
Earlier, several American media reports claimed that U.S. intelligence had started seeing indications that Iran is taking steps to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway is the world’s most critical maritime chokepoint, with approximately 20.9 million barrels of oil per day — roughly one-fifth of global consumption passing through.
Following the reports, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the American military had destroyed “10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships, with more to follow!”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, from his side, said that CENTCOM “has been eliminating inactive mine-laying vessels in the Strait of Hormuz—wiping them out with ruthless precision. We will not allow terrorists to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage.”
“To the weakened Iranian regime: you have officially been put on notice!” he added in an X post.
The IRGC previously warned that any ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz would be attacked, and the waterway has effectively been closed since the start of the American-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic, with multiple tankers hit by Iranian fire nearby.
Both the guards and the IRIN are more than capable of blocking the strategic waterway, using not just mine-laying vessels, but also unmanned fast boats, unmanned underwater vessels, and shore-based anti-ship missile batteries.
Iran has not yet officially announced that it would close the waterway, but responding to threats by Trump earlier in the day, the Islamic Republic’s security chief Ali Larijani said that the Strait of Hormuz will either be a strait of peace and prosperity for all or a strait of defeat and suffering for “warmongers.”
The U.S. Navy will not likely be able to escort vessels through the waterway, as this would expose its own warships to Iranian fire. In addition, the ongoing military campaign against the naval forces of the Islamic Republic will not likely affect most of their anti-shipping capabilities.
It is very likely that the U.S. has lost the battle for the Strait of Hormuz before it even began. An agreement of some sort seems the only way to keep the waterway open.
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czy tel awiw lub hajfa spłoną? obecnie to jednak żydzi palą iran. niestety. trzymam kciuki za jedno, ale konkretne walnięcie w centrum światowego syjonizmu i zła.