Iran Unable to Find Mines It Planted in Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Says

[usonian]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/us/politics/iran-mines-strait.html
https://archive.ph/AMC6a

Iran mined the strait haphazardly, U.S. officials said.
There you go. Religious fanatics on both sides playing soldier.

Iran has been unable to open the Strait of Hormuz to more shipping traffic because it cannot locate all of the mines it laid in the waterway and lacks the capability to remove them, according to U.S. officials.

Iran used small boats to mine the strait last month, soon after the United States and Israel began their war against the country. The mines, plus the threat of Iranian drone and missile attacks, slowed the number of oil tankers and other vessels passing through the strait to a trickle, driving up energy prices and providing Iran with its best leverage in the war. Iran left a path through the strait open, allowing ships that pay a toll to pass through.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has issued warnings that ships could collide with sea mines, and semiofficial news organizations have published charts showing safe routes.

Those routes are limited in large part because Iran mined the strait haphazardly, U.S. officials said. It is not clear that Iran recorded where it put every mine. And even when the location was recorded, some mines were placed in a way that allowed them to drift or move, according to the officials.

semi-official news organization:

https://abc30.com/live-updates/iran-war-strait-hormuz-ceasefire-trump-stock-market/18847792/entry/18860179/

Iranian media publishes Strait of Hormuz routes to avoid 'sea mines'

Iranian media issued a chart outlining "alternative" traffic routes in the Strait of Hormuz to protect vessels from what it said were "possible collisions with sea mines."

The chart was widely published on Wednesday along with a statement detailing the alternative routes by Iran's semi-official news agencies, including those close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps such as Fars and Tasnim.

According to the statement, all vessels intending to transit the Strait of Hormuz "must coordinate with the IRGC Navy" and use alternative routes in order "to observe maritime safety principles and avoid potential collisions with sea mines."

And to think, in the beginning, Iran laid mines because Trump and Epstein laid minors.

[Inkey]

1. I would think that the nations that are being impacted by shipping hazards in the Strait of Hormuz

Would be coordinating their naval minesweepers to alleviate this current crisis.

[Historic NY]

2. I guess no one has mine sweepers anymore.

the navy could have built a modern given the amount spent on the drone then had that just disappeared