CENTCOM commander says mines cleared from Hormuz shipping lanes

A US Navy diver in a still taken from the video in which Admiral Bradley Cooper announced that the shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz have been cleared of mines. (US Central Command)

All the sea mines that Iranian forces deployed in the shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz have now been cleared, US Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Admiral Bradley Cooper announced on 28 August.

“As recently announced, the US military has achieved a major milestone in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said in a video released by CENTCOM. “We have successfully cleared sea mines in the strait's international shipping lanes that were laid months ago by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Internationally recognised transit routes in the strait are free of Iranian sea mines.”

“Over the past few months, our forces meticulously and quietly cleared them [the shipping lanes] of sea mine threats using a combination of navy divers, navy SEALs, and US air power,” he added. “The circumstances were challenging and dangerous, to say the least, but we go the job done.”

US President Donald Trump announced on 25 August that, “all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz”. He added that Iran had been warned that any vessel attempting to deploy new mines would be destroyed.

Adm Cooper told the Congressional armed services committees in May that the US military had “eliminated more than 90% of Iran's once-massive inventory of over 8,000 naval mines” in more than 700 airstrikes that targeted this specific threat since 28 February.