WASHINGTON (United States), Apr 23 (AFP): A Pentagon assessment said it could take six months to completely clear the Strait of Hormuz of Iranian-laid mines, which could keep oil prices high, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Iran has all but blocked the vital waterway since the start of a war with the United States and Israel, sharply driving up oil and gas prices and disrupting the global economy.
The strait -- through which one-fifth of the world's oil and gas passes in peacetime -- has remained largely closed during a shaky ceasefire, with the US imposing its own blockade.
Even if hostilities end and the blockade lifts, it could take months to clear the waterway of mines, according to a Pentagon assessment, the Washington Post reported citing officials close to the discussion.
The assessment added that it was unlikely such an operation would begin before the end of the war.
The six-month estimate was shared with members of the House Armed Services Committee during a classified briefing, the Post reported.
Lawmakers were told that Iran may have placed 20 or more mines in and around the strait, some floated remotely using GPS technology which makes them harder to detect, according to the report.
Reuters adds: The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced policymakers in Asia to face questions over the security of other maritime chokepoints, including the Strait of Malacca, which is the world's busiest waterway for international trade.
What Is The Malacca Strait?
The 900-km (550-mile) long Malacca Strait, bounded by Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, provides the shortest sea route from East Asia to the Middle East and Europe.
It carries nearly 22 percent of the world's maritime trade, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This includes oil and gas shipments from the Middle East to the energy-hungry economies of China, Japan and South Korea.
Malacca is the largest "oil transit chokepoint" in the world and the only one that outpaces Hormuz, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
In the first half of 2025, some 23.2 million barrels of oil per day were transported through the Malacca Strait, accounting for 29 percent of total maritime oil flows.
The next largest chokepoint, Hormuz, saw about 20.9 million bpd pass through.
More than 102,500 ships, mostly commercial vessels, transited through the Malacca Strait in 2025, up from around 94,300 in 2024, data from Malaysia's Marine Department showed. These include most tankers, but some very large vessels avoid the strait because of draught restrictions and go south around Indonesia instead.
AFP adds: The United States blocked a plane carrying nearly $500 million in banknotes from delivering the cash to Iraq, US media reported on Tuesday, piling pressure on Baghdad to fight Iran-backed militant groups.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington has suspended cash shipments to Iraq and frozen funding for security programs following attacks on US interests in the country by groups showing solidarity with Iran.
Iraq has long walked a tightrope between the competing influences of its allies, neighbouring Iran and the United States.
However, Iraqi leaders have struggled to maintain that delicate balance as war engulfs the Middle East.
An Iraqi government official told AFP only one shipment has not arrived, citing "logistical reasons due to the war" and airspace closure.
An Iraqi central bank official also downplayed the issue, telling AFP that dollar shipments have ceased during the regional war "due to the suspension of flights and the security situation."
Lebanon's president and prime minister accused Israel on Thursday of a war crime, after an airstrike killed a Lebanese journalist in the country's south, where Israeli forces occupy several areas.
Rescuers and the reporter's employer on Wednesday confirmed the death of Amal Khalil, a 42-year-old journalist who worked for the Lebanese daily Al-Akbar.
The civil defence agency said she was killed in a strike on a house in the village of al-Tiril.
"Israel deliberately targets journalists in order to conceal the truth about its crimes against Lebanon," said President Joseph Aoun, in a statement denouncing "war crimes."
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam wrote on X that "targeting journalists and obstructing access for rescue teams constitutes a war crime," adding that his government would take the attack to international bodies.
A 10-day ceasefire has been in effect in Lebanon since Friday, pausing the war between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah that has left more than 2,400 dead in Lebanon.
Khalil and another journalist had taken refuge in a house in al-Tiri after an Israeli airstrike targeted a car in front of them, according to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA).
Israeli attacks on Lebanon during its latest war with Hezbollah damaged or destroyed more than 50,000 housing units in the country, a government estimate found on Wednesday.
"Within about 45 days (of the war), we had 17,756 destroyed housing units and 32,668 damaged housing units," Chadi Abdallah, head of the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), told AFP.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed more than 2,400 people and displaced more than a million since Iran-backed Hezbollah drew the country into the Middle East war on March 2.
Despite an ongoing 10-day truce that started on Friday, Israeli forces have continued to demolish and blow up homes in southern Lebanese towns they currently occupy, according to Lebanese authorities, eyewitnesses, and photographs taken by AFP from the Israeli side.
The CNRS estimates that "428 housing units were destroyed and 50 were damaged" during the first three days of the ceasefire, Abdallah said.
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