Iran has beenreportedly seeking to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz, according to recent reports. The mining has not been extensive yet, with a few dozen mines being laid in recent days, according to sources who spoke to CNN.
The US has now said that it destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait on Tuesday. The US military wrote on X, attaching a video showing some of the strikes. US President Donald Trump had earlier put the number of minelayers destroyed on Tuesday at ten, “with more to follow.”
However, these numbers barely put a dent in Iran’s mine-laying capabilities, as it still retains about 80 to 90 per cent of its small boats capable of laying mines. The sources who spoke to CNN said that Iran could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.
Iran’s IRGC now controls the strait along with the country’s traditional navy. Together, they can deploy a gauntlet of dispersed mine-laying craft, explosive-laden boats and shore-based missile batteries, CNN reported.
US officials on Tuesday had told CBS News that Iran is using smaller crafts that can carry two to three mines each to lay them into the strait.
Iran’s mine stock is not publicly known; however, it is estimated that over the year it has accumulated roughly 2000 to 6000 naval mines produced domestically and by China and Russia.
On Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social, "If Iran does anything that stops the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America twenty times harder than they have been hit thus far."
The Strait is an energy chokepoint, and tanks carrying 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the UAE have passed through it to supply the global market. Even small disruptions to the Strait can have a ripple effect on global oil prices and the economy.
A CIA report released to the public in 2009 had reported that Iran could use mines to raise insurance rates and discourage ships from entering the Persian Gulf, effectively blocking the strait.
The Robert Strauss Centre for International Security and Law in Texas said that laying mines, which are cheap and historically effective, would be beneficial to Iran. While conventional warships or patrol boats are used to lay mines, depending on the size of the mine, even smaller fishing boats can deploy them. Mines can also be dropped into the water via aircraft and submarines.
Naval mines have inflicted 77 per cent of U.S. ship casualties since 1950.
