LONDON: Each year on April 4, as the world marks International Mine Awareness Day, attention often focuses on the deadly legacy of landmines and unexploded ordnance on land.
But beneath the waves, another threat is unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran’s sea mines have raised the stakes for maritime traffic and global trade.
Nine days after the US and Israel launched their joint military operation against Iran, US officials said Tehran might be preparing to deploy naval mines in the waterway to further disrupt one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.
The officials, speaking to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy was deploying its fleet of fast attack boats, which can carry two or three mines at a time.
Then, on March 23, US officials told the broadcaster that intelligence assessments indicated at least a dozen underwater mines had already been used in the waterway, while another official put the number at fewer than a dozen.
