US special forces conducted secret 4-month operation in Hormuz to clear mines: report

US Navy SEALs conducted a covert four-month mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz, using divers, robotic vessels and specialized underwater systems in a high-risk effort to reopen the vital waterway, the Financial Times reported.

The operation, carried out mostly under cover of darkness amid ongoing exchanges of strikes between the United States and Iran, aimed to neutralize Iranian mines that had deterred commercial shipping since the conflict erupted following US and ‘Israeli’ attacks on Iran in February.

Iran claimed it had placed mines in international and Omani waters; the International Maritime Organization estimated in June that roughly 80 mines had been deployed along key shipping routes.

Traditional US Navy mine-countermeasure ships based in the Gulf were reportedly outside the region, leaving special forces and unmanned systems to handle much of the work.

Navy SEAL divers operated in small teams from rubber or inflatable-hulled boats, supported by robotic surface vessels and underwater vehicles towing high-resolution side-scan sonar arrays.

These systems scanned the seabed to identify objects without immediately exposing personnel.

“That is usually followed up by a navy diver who’s got to get in the water and approach the mine, and then put a charge on it and destroy it,” retired US Navy Capt. Bill Hamblet, who spent years operating in the Gulf, told the FT.

He described the force as a “very small, lightweight kind of force.”

The mission faced significant hazards in the narrow strait, with strong currents, tidal variations, and the constant risk of Iranian attack.

Mine-warfare expert Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute noted that “mine-clearing forces are vulnerable because the operation is slow and their boats or helicopters lack defences.”

Nitya Labh, an associate fellow at Chatham House, called it “an extremely time-consuming process,” adding that teams were “doing, essentially, active bomb detonation underwater.”

No US casualties were reported.

In late August, US Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Coopersaid that forces had cleared Iranian sea mines from major international shipping lanes in the strait’s Traffic Separation Scheme.

“We have successfully cleared sea mines in the Strait’s international shipping lanes that were laid months ago by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Cooper said.

“Our forces meticulously and quietly cleared them of sea mine threats using a combination of Navy divers, Navy SEALs and U.S. air power from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.”

He added: “The circumstances were challenging and dangerous to say the least, but we got the job done.” President Donald Trump had earlier declared that all mines in the strait’s international waters had been removed or detonated.

Despite these announcements, questions persist about whether the entire waterway is mine-free.

Shipping companies and security advisers generally believe the southern routes near Oman, where the US has directed vessels, have been cleared, but remain less confident about other areas.

“It doesn’t take much to put a mine back in because there is a lot of small-boat traffic going across Hormuz every night,” one tanker industry executive said.

Iranian officials have disputed full clearance, with one noting that “no one except Iran knows the locations of these mines.”