Iran has issued threats concerning the Strait of Hormuz at various levels. Iran's security chief, Ali Larijani, wrote on Tuesday on X that the strait could become "a strait of losses and suffering for warmongers."
On Tuesday evening, U.S. reports said Iran had begun mining the strait. Two sources told CNN that a few dozen mines had been laid "in recent days" and that Iran had the capacity to lay hundreds of mines in the water.
Sources told a CBS News reporter that U.S. intelligence has seen early indications that Iran "may" be placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
But President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the U.S. had no reports of mines being laid. "But if they have been, they must be removed immediately!" he wrote.
"If for some reason they have laid mines, and these are not removed, the military consequences against Iran will be at a level never seen before," Trump wrote.
But the president ended on a slightly more conciliatory note:
"If Iran, on the other hand, removes the mines, that is a huge step in the right direction!"
Later, Trump wrote that the U.S. had destroyed Iranian mine ships. Late Tuesday evening local time in Sweden, the U.S. military command Centcom said on X that the U.S. had destroyed "several" Iranian military ships, "including 16 mine ships near the Strait of Hormuz."
