U.S. Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper told congressional lawmakers on Thursday that U.S. forces have eliminated in excess of 90% of Iran's estimated 8,000 naval mines via more than 700 airstrikes. In a written statement accompanying his testimony, Cooper did not address Iran's ongoing control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Cooper described the operations as having destroyed Iran's "once-massive inventory" of sea mines, but he did not provide a breakdown of how many of those mines had been laid in the strait compared with those found in storage or aboard vessels and then neutralized.
In his remarks the admiral emphasized that the strikes have targeted traditional Iranian military capabilities while noting that Tehran retains irregular means of attack. He specifically pointed to the continued threat from drone strikes against ships and energy infrastructure in the region.
"Iran retains nuisance capability - harassment, low-end drone and rocket attacks, and residual proxy support - but it no longer possesses the means to threaten major regional operations or to deter US freedom of action in the air or maritime domains," Cooper stated.
The admiral's comments came amid reports that Iranian threats to commercial vessels have effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz for two and a half months, a development the statement linked to upward pressure on global energy prices and to increased political pressure on President Donald Trump to resolve the confrontation.
Senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have repeatedly pointed to the cumulative number of targets struck as evidence of the campaign's operational effect. Those officials have said the tally of strikes now exceeds 13,000 and have used the count of destroyed Iranian assets to argue that Operation Epic Fury has achieved tactical success, even as Tehran continues to control the waterway.
Cooper submitted detailed statistics as part of his written materials ahead of what officials said would be his first of two appearances before defense policy committees. He framed these figures as an accounting of Operation Epic Fury's scope against Iran, which he noted is currently in a ceasefire that President Trump earlier this week described as on "massive life support."
According to the report Cooper provided, U.S. forces conducted more than 10,200 sorties and carried out over 13,500 strikes aimed at the full range of Iran's power projection capabilities. The campaign, the report said, damaged or destroyed more than 85% of Iran's ballistic missile, drone and naval defense industrial base.
Within that campaign, the report cited more than 1,450 strikes against weapons manufacturing facilities. It said those attacks have set back Iran's ability to build and stockpile ballistic missiles and long-range drones by years.
Cooper's materials also documented over 2,000 strikes on Iranian command-and-control structures. The report linked those attacks to leadership vacuums and internal disarray inside Iranian forces, citing reports of desertions, personnel shortages and what it described as attempts by the regime to enforce discipline through arrest and execution.
Finally, the report credited an integrated air defense system established by U.S. Central Command at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar with enabling regional partners to intercept more than 6,000 one-way attack drones and upwards of 1,500 ballistic missiles that were aimed at U.S. forces, Israel and Arab partners.
This reporting is limited to the details Cooper provided in his written statement to lawmakers. Where the statement did not specify numbers or locations - such as the exact distribution of mines laid in the Strait of Hormuz versus those destroyed elsewhere - those details are not included here.