The Strait of Hormuz is a vital but narrow waterway where ships ferrying oil and other important chemicals pass daily, in normal circumstances. Since the start of the Iran war, Tehran has closed off some transit, prompting the U.S. to impose its own blockade on Iranian ports. In early April, Iran began laying sea mines in the strait, along the major routes that commercial vessels use.
Iran soon issued a warning of mines and advised an alternative route on April 9. Two days later, the U.S. announced that two destroyers, the USS Michael Murphy and USS Frank E. Petersen, were transiting the strait to start a mine clearance operation. In April, CENTCOM said that more American forces, including underwater drones, would take part but did not give a timeline for the mission. Since then, there have been few updates on the progress of mine clearance. Cooper said that during that time U.S. forces “meticulously and quietly” cleared the routes of Iranian sea mines. The effort involved a mix of Navy divers, Navy SEALs and a combination of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine aircraft.
Despite the successful mine clearance, Cooper said that the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz remains in effect. More than 20 warships are participating and they have turned around 75 ships and disabled three vessels since the blockade was restarted in July.
The memorandum of understanding, which announced a 60-day pause in fighting to discuss a permanent peace deal, lapsed this month. Significant fighting restarted in July despite the memorandum of understanding, with the U.S. attacking Iranian sites for several days.
I guess the war is still on even though Iran allowed mine removal in the strait without firing on US Navy ships.
“That sucker is open”: U.S. gains the upper hand in the battle for Hormuz https://www.axios.com/2026/08/28/trump-iran-hormuz-war-oil In the first 72 hours of the war, Iran announced it was closing the strait and warned it would attack tankers that tried to transit. But behind the scenes, [commander of the IRGC Navy] Tangsiri gave an order that dramatically escalated the situation: to deploy naval mines in the Traffic Separation Scheme, the main international shipping lane through the strait, Israeli and U.S. officials say. Tangsiri was killed three weeks later in an Israeli airstrike in Bandar Abbas, Iran…
A two-week U.S. bombing campaign significantly undercut the IRGC’s capacity to attack ships crossing the strait. A mine-sweeping operation involved Navy divers, Navy SEALs, underwater and surface drones, and private contractors to detect and neutralize the mines…
More than 200 mine-like objects have been swept from the main lane of the strait. US officials say only 11 of them were actual mines and just a few were properly deployed.
US forces strike Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz in first military action in weeks
Forces with the Revolutionary Guard Corps were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements.
The U.S. military last week completed clearing sea mines from the strait’s international shipping routes.