reuters_tickers
WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Central Command said the military “destroyed” 16 Iranian mine carriers near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, while President Donald Trump warned that any mines Iran planted in the strait must be removed immediately.
Trump had previously said that the United States had “completely destroyed” 10 inactive mine-laying ships.
In a clear response to media reports that Iran had begun planting mines in the waterway vital for oil shipments, Trump said on the Truth Social social media platform, “If Iran has planted any mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and we have not received any reports of that, we want to remove them immediately!”
He added that if Tehran did not respond, it would face military consequences, without going into details.
Trump stated that the United States is using the same technology used against drug smugglers “to completely eliminate any boat or ship that attempts to plant mines in the Strait of Hormuz.”
In the past few months, the United States launched a series of raids on ships in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean, saying they were carrying drugs, killing dozens.
The US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced earlier today that it was targeting Iranian mine-laying ships and storage facilities.
The US-Israeli war on Iran led to a virtual cessation of shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually passes.
* Delete a post
General Dan Kean, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier today that the US military had begun studying potential options for escorting ships through the strait, if orders were issued to do so.
“We are looking at a range of options,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.
However, informed sources told Reuters that the US Navy has rejected almost daily requests from the shipping sector to provide military escort for ships passing through the strait since the start of the war on Iran, saying that the risk of attacks is very high at the present time.
US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a post on the X website today that the Navy had succeeded in escorting an oil tanker through the strait, but he later deleted the post.
White House spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt confirmed to reporters later on Tuesday, in response to a question about this matter, that the United States has not escorted any oil tankers or ships through the Strait of Hormuz so far.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Energy said, “A video clip was deleted from Energy Secretary Wright’s official account on the X platform after it became clear to Ministry employees that the comment on it was incorrect.”
Commenting on Wright’s statements, a spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard denied accompanying any oil ship.
Ali Mohammad Naeini said in statements reported by official Iranian media, “Our missiles and drones will stop any movement of the American fleet and its allies.”
(Prepared by Ali Khafaji for the Arabic Bulletin)
