Can US really make Hormuz safe? The dangerous battle against Iran’s sea mines

The US has spent four months conducting a covert and highly dangerous mine-clearance operation in the Strait of Hormuz, deploying Navy SEAL divers, robotic boats and specialised underwater craft to remove mines that have threatened one of the world's most important shipping routes.The operation, carried out largely at night and underwater, involved small teams of US Navy divers locating suspected Iranian mines with the help of unmanned boats and submersibles before destroying the explosives. The details of the mission were reported by the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the operation.The operation highlights the extraordinary difficulty of reopening the strategically vital waterway, where the threat of mines has compounded missile and drone attacks and sharply reduced commercial shipping.US President Donald Trump last week said that “all mines” in the strait’s international waters had been removed or detonated, a claim subsequently confirmed by the US military.