US Navy SEALs Conducted Covert Four-Month Mission to Clear Strait of Hormuz Mines: Report

For four months, US Navy SEAL divers worked at night in the Strait of Hormuz, searching for suspected Iranian mines while the United States and Iran continued exchanging strikes around the waterway.

The covert operation used small teams of divers, inflatable-hulled boats, unmanned surface vessels, submersibles and advanced sonar. The mission sought to make the strait safer for commercial vessels, many of which had largely avoided the route since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February.

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That is usually followed up by a navy diver who’s got to get in the water and approach the mine, and then put a charge on it and destroy it.

Iran has said it placed mines in international and Omani waters after the war began. The International Maritime Organization estimated in June that about 80 mines had been deployed along important shipping routes. Mine clearance is difficult even during peacetime, and the active conflict added further danger. Retired US Navy captain Bill Hamblet told the Financial Times that divers typically must approach a mine and attach a charge to destroy it. No US casualties have been reported in connection with the operation.

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It is an extremely time-consuming process.

President Donald Trump said last week that “all mines” in the strait's international waters had been removed or destroyed. The US military later confirmed the claim, although reports indicated that three US vessels normally assigned to mine-countermeasure operations in the Gulf had been operating in the Indian and Pacific oceans since at least early June.

Shipping companies and maritime security advisers believe the areas near Oman, where the United States has been directing ships, were probably cleared. They remain less certain about other parts of the waterway. A tanker industry executive warned that “It doesn’t take much to put a mine back in because there is a lot of small-boat traffic going across Hormuz every night.” The continuing uncertainty gives Tehran leverage because even the possibility of mines can deter commercial shipping.

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It doesn’t take much to put a mine back in because there is a lot of small-boat traffic going across Hormuz every night.