The United States military said it destroyed multiple Iranian naval vessels, including 16 minelaying ships, near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, according to an announcement from U.S. Central Command, which posted video of some of the strikes on X.
The move comes amid growing U.S. concern that Iran has begun planting naval mines in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which about one‑fifth of the world’s crude oil passes each day.
CNN earlier reported that U.S. intelligence indicated Iranian forces had started laying mines in the channel — a development that heightened fears of disruption to global energy shipments.
Following those reports, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday, “if Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!”
In a separate post on X, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that at Trump’s direction, U.S. Central Command “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.”
U.S. military officials have not publicly confirmed whether mines Iran is believed to have laid have entered the water, but the strikes on the Iranian vessels mark a significant escalation around the critical shipping lane that connects the Persian Gulf with the Arabian Sea.
