IRGC says ship struck 2 sea mines after U.S. declared Hormuz cleared

Aug. 31 (UPI) — A supertanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz struck two sea mines, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday, days after the Trump administration said it had cleared the vital transit route of the explosive devices.

According to a statement from the IRGC Navy carried by semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the unidentified tanker struck the mines, caught fire and came to a stop.

The IRGC Navy said the vessel had attempted to pass through an “illegal route south of the Strait of Hormuz” when it came into contact with the mines.

The IRGC Navy once again warns that the fate of ships that violate the security regulations of the Strait of Hormuz will be no different from this,” it said.

“Compliance with the regulations issued by the IRGC Navy for passage through the strait is mandatory.”

The U.S.-Iran war has for months been focused on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has restricted commercial passage through with the use of mines, drones and artillery since the start of the conflict.

The U.S. military has been fighting to regain freedom of navigation through this chokepoint, and President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that vessels are freely able to transit it despite only 8.3% of the normal daily volume passing in the last 24 hours with hundreds of vessels waiting, according to the independent Hormuz Strait Monitor.

Last week, Trump claimed all mines planted by the IRGC in the strait had been cleared and Iran had been warned that any ship planting new mines would be “destroyed.”

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper later in the week echoed Trump, saying, “We have successfully cleared sea mines in the strait’s international shipping lanes.”

Neither claim could be independently verified.

The announcement came hours after U.S. forces said it struck a pair of rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, the first U.S. military action taken against Iran in weeks.