CENTCOM chief says Hormuz shipping routes cleared of sea mines as vessels transit freely
US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper says the Strait of Hormuz's main recognised shipping routes are clear of Iranian sea mines and vessels are transiting freely, a claim Iran's Revolutionary Guard has challenged.
The head of the United States Central Command has said the primary internationally recognised shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz have been cleared of Iranian sea mines, and that commercial vessels are now sailing freely through the strategic waterway.
Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, made the claim in a video posted on CENTCOM's social media account after a review of military operations across the Middle East. He said that during an aerial survey over the strait earlier in the week he had seen dozens of merchant vessels transiting unimpeded, carrying cargo, crude oil and liquefied natural gas.
"Earlier this week, I visited some of the more than 50,000 service members supporting operations across the Middle East, including our mission in the Strait of Hormuz," Cooper said. "When I flew over the strait, I saw dozens of commercial vessels transiting, all types: cargo, crude oil, liquid natural gas, or LNG."
Cooper also pointed to what he did not see. "Here's what I didn't see: I didn't see the IRGC out there at all," he said, referring to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He added that the force had patrolled the strait for decades, harassing, threatening and seizing commercial vessels, but was no longer present because, in his words, Iran's navy is "all at the bottom of the sea".
The commander linked the claim to the wider American campaign in the region. He said US forces had assisted Gulf partners in exporting more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil since the summer, and that they had prevented Iran from exporting any oil because of what he described as an ironclad blockade on Iranian ports. He said teams that carried out the mine-clearance mission continued to provide coordinated protection for commercial shipping.
Cooper said US forces "remain highly vigilant and present to ensure all primary transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz remain free and clear". The strait, between Iran and Oman, is one of the world's most important oil chokepoints, and any threat to shipping there has immediate consequences for global energy prices and supply.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has disputed the American account. Earlier in the week, IRGC Deputy Head of Public Relations Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi demanded concrete proof of minesweeping rather than media statements, according to state news agency IRNA. The Guard has also said it stopped two tankers from crossing the southern part of the waterway, and Iranian claims have separately said four tankers caught fire after hitting mines, claims that remain unverified.
The dispute sits within a much larger pattern of attacks on shipping. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported at least 35 attacks on shipping in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz during October, and the site has reported tanker strikes, a burning vessel from which Oman rescued 25 crew, and a projectile strike on a crude carrier leaving the strait in recent days.
CENTCOM has made similar claims before. Its spokesman, US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, told Al Jazeera that US forces had completed clearing mines from the internationally recognised primary shipping lanes several weeks ago, that traffic through the strait "continues to flow", and that since early May US forces had assisted commercial vessels moving more than 900 million barrels of crude oil through the waterway while redirecting more than 100 ships trying to violate the blockade. A Gulf News summary of Cooper's remarks also put the number of commercial vessels transited with US support over six months at more than 3,000.
The competing claims cannot both be fully verified from public statements alone, and neither side has published independent evidence that would settle the question. What is clear is that commercial traffic is still moving through the strait, that both sides are using the waterway as a measure of who controls it, and that the argument over mines is now part of the wider contest over the strait itself.
What happens next is likely to turn on whether shipping continues without a major incident and whether the diplomatic track in Doha produces any easing. If vessels keep transiting freely, the American claim will gain weight with shippers and insurers; another tanker fire or a confirmed mine strike would undermine it quickly. For now, the strait remains open in practice for much commercial traffic, contested in words, and watched closely by every country that depends on the oil passing through it.
