Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/12/world/iran-war-news-trump-oil-israel

U.S. Officials Say Iran Is Laying Mines in Key Oil Route
Iran is using smaller boats, not naval vessels, for the operation in the Strait of Hormuz, an American official said. Israeli airstrikes pounded the Lebanese and Iranian capitals on the 13th day of fighting.

Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf channel that carries 20 percent of the world’s oil, according to U.S. officials, a move that could exacerbate the disruptions to global shipping and further rattle the global economy.

While the U.S. military said it had destroyed larger Iranian naval vessels, Iran began using smaller boats to lay mines on Thursday, according to a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence.

Earlier on Thursday, Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, had vowed to keep blocking the strait. Striking a defiant tone in his first public statement since succeeding his father, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, he promised to avenge “the blood of the martyrs.”

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