Trump: ASHdestroyed 10 Iranian minesweepers
JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump said his forces had destroyed 10 Iranian ships used to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The action came just minutes after Trump warned Iran it would face unprecedented military consequences if it did not remove the mines from the shipping lanes.
"We have hit and completely destroyed 10 inactive minesweeping vessels and/or boats, and there will be more," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, as reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Wednesday, March 11.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US Central Command (CENTCOM) had destroyed the ships "with brutal precision" at Trump's direction.
"We will not allow terrorists to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage," Hegseth wrote on the X social media platform.
He stressed that Iran had been officially warned.
The attack came after CNN reported Iran had begun laying mines in the strait.
US officials said Tehran used small boats carrying two to three mines each. However, Trump noted that the US had no reports that Iran had actually placed mines on the shipping lanes.
Trump said the US would use similar missile technology, which has been used to destroy drug smugglers' boats in the Caribbean, to target any vessel trying to lay mines in the strait.
The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime route, with more than 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products passing through each day. That amount accounts for about 20 percent of global consumption.
Currently, the strait is experiencing a major disruption due to the attack launched by the US and Israel against Iran on February 28. The attack caused a spike in oil prices.
Trump on Monday (9/3) promised the Strait of Hormuz would remain "safe" and said Iran would be attacked 20 times harder if it did anything to stop the flow of oil.
The escalation in the Middle East has been increasing since the US-Israeli attack that killed more than 1,200 people, including Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. At least eight US military members were also reported dead since the start of the military operation.