Trump orders US military to 'shoot and kill' Iranian small boats choking Strait of Hormuz
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, announcing the move Thursday, a day after Iran again displayed its ability to thwart traffic through the channel.
Trump also announced that a ceasefire in Lebanon would be extended by three weeks.
His post on social media Thursday about the small boats came shortly after the U.S. military seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up a standoff with Tehran over the strait through which 20% of all crude oil and natural gas passed during peacetime.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be, ... putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted, adding that U.S. minesweepers "are clearing the Strait right now.”
“I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!” he added.
The decision to extend a pause in fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon came during a meeting at the White House between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States.
Meanwhile, it was still unclear when, or if, the U.S. and Iran would meet again in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where mediators are trying to bring the countries together to reach a diplomatic deal ending that conflict.
Negotiations initially planned this week have not happened. Iran insists it will not attend until the U.S. ends its blockade on Iranian ports and ships. The White House insists it will not take part until Tehran opens the strait to international traffic.
Pope Leo XIV, returning home from a trip to Africa, urged the U.S. and Iran to return to talks to end the war.
The Defense Department released video footage earlier Thursday of U.S. forces on the deck of the Guinea-flagged oil tanker Majestic X, which was seized in the Indian Ocean.
The footage emerged a day after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard attacked three cargo ships in the strait, capturing two of them, in an assault that raised new concerns about the safety of shipping through the waterway.
The powerful head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, said three “violating ships” in the strait were “subject to enforcement” Wednesday.
“The show of strength by the armed forces of Islamic Iran in the Strait of Hormuz is a source of pride,” he wrote Thursday on X, claiming the Americans “lack the courage” to approach the strait.
Ship-tracking data showed the Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, roughly the same location as the oil tanker Tifani, seized earlier by American forces. It had been bound for Zhoushan, China.
Majestic X previously was named Phonix and had been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2024 for smuggling Iranian crude oil in contravention of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
There was no immediate response from Iran about the seizure.
Trump this week extended a ceasefire to give the Iranian leadership more time to come up with a “unified proposal” on ending the war, while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports.
In a post Thursday, Trump claimed a leadership rift between moderates and hard-liners was confounding Iran. “Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know!” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly said during the ceasefire that began April 8 that his team is dealing with Iranian officials who want to make a deal, while acknowledging that his decision to kill several top leaders has come with complications.
Iran’s president and its parliament speaker posted statements on social media declaring the country has no hard-liners or moderates.
"We are all Iranians and revolutionaries,” they said.
A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Trump's claim of a leadership rift was a “deflection.” Other Iranian officials said on social media that the country was united.
Trump, while speaking to reporters at the White House, pushed back against questions about the conflict exceeding the four-to-six-week timeline that he and aides previously set for the war.
“I don’t want to rush myself,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. “took the country out” militarily in the first four weeks.
“Now all we’re doing is sitting back and seeing what deal" can be made. "And if they don’t want to make a deal, then I’ll finish it up militarily,” Trump said.
He said he would not use a nuclear weapon against Iran.
In other developments, three aircraft carriers were in the region after the USS George H.W. Bush arrived in the Indian Ocean. One carrier was in the Arabian Sea and another was in the Red Sea, military officials said.
Trump said a second round of talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington “went very well” and resulted in a ceasefire extension for Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.
“The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah started after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks on Iran and the Tehran-backed militants fired rockets into northern Israel. The ceasefire first took effect for a 10-day period starting Friday.
Underscoring the truce's fragility, Israel’s military said it struck missile launchers in Lebanon that had fired into its borders. Hezbollah said it fired at the Israeli town of Shtula in response to Israeli attacks on the Lebanese village of Yater.
Lebanon's public health ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed three people further north, in the area of Nabatiya. The Israeli military said it had killed three militants who had launched a missile toward an Israeli warplane.
Each side has accused the other of breaching the truce.
Trump reiterated that the U.S. continues to demand that Iran stop it’s backing of Iranian-allied militias in the Mideast, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, as part of any deal between Washington and Tehran to end the U.S. war on Iran.
“Yeah, they’ll have to cut that,” Trump said to a reporter’s question about aiding Hezbollah. “That’s a must.”
Since the Feb. 28 start of the war between Iran, Israel and the United States, over 30 ships have come under attack in the waters of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
The threat of attack, rising insurance premiums and other fears have stopped traffic from moving through the strait. Iran’s ability to restrict traffic through the strait, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has proved a major strategic advantage.
Jakob Larsen, the head of maritime security for BIMCO, the largest international association representing shipowners, said in a note Thursday that most shipping companies need a stable ceasefire and assurances from both sides of the conflict that the strait is safe for transit.
The threat of mines, he wrote, was a “particular concern” if traffic might return to normal levels one day.
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Madhani reported from Washington, and Keaten reported from Geneva.
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