US targets Iran mine-laying boats amid ‘most intense’ strikes
WASHINGTON
The U.S. military has destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz after the Pentagon said attacks on Iran will ramp up with the heaviest strikes since Washington launched the war 10 days ago.
"Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran," U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Hegseth told a news conference at the Pentagon on March 10.
As for a timeline for the war, U.S. President Donald Trump "gets to control the throttle. He's the one deciding," Hegseth said.
"It's not for me to posit whether it's the beginning, the middle or the end," the defense secretary said.
The United States on March 10 launched an all-out assault on Iranian minelaying vessels, as Trump warned Tehran of unprecedented military consequences if it targets the Strait of Hormuz.
"I am pleased to report that within the last few hours, we have hit, and completely destroyed, 10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships, with more to follow!" Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Later, United States Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote on X that the figure had risen to 16 destroyed minelayers "near the Strait of Hormuz."
After several U.S. media outlets said Iran had either started or was on the verge of mining the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said he had no reports that such action had begun.
But Trump warned, "If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before.”
"If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction!"
Nearly a fifth of global oil production passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House said that the U.S. has not escorted any oil tanker through the waterway, after the energy secretary's social media account posted but then deleted a claim that it did so.
The Strait of Hormuz, less than 30 miles (48 kilometers) across at its narrowest point, is shared by Iran on one side and Oman on the other.
Trump has floated the idea of the U.S. Navy accompanying commercial vessels, but Washington's forces have yet to begin the potentially risky mission.
"There are a number of threats that Iran...potentially could bring to bear against that type of escort mission," said Jonathan Schroden, chief research officer at the Center for Naval Analyses.
These include sea mines, fast-attack craft, missiles and one-way attack drones.
Iran says Mideast banks are targets
Meanwhile, a joint Iranian military command said on March 11 that banks and financial institutions are now targets in the Middle East.
"The enemy has given us free rein to target economic centers and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime," said the military's central operational command, Khatam Al-Anbiya, in a statement carried by state TV.
It came after Iranian media reported staff at a bank in Tehran had been killed in Israeli-American airstrikes.
The threat would put at risk particularly Dubai, which is home to many international financial institutions, as well as Saudi Arabia and the island kingdom of Bahrain.