“Welcome to Hell,” read the front-page headline of an Iran-based English-language daily’s special edition newspaper published on Friday. The words didn’t just form the headline but gave a stern warning to the US, which is reportedly planning a ground invasion of Iran.
“US troops who step foot on Iranian soil will leave only in coffins,” read the message on Tehran Times newspaper.
According to reports, the US is mulling a possible ground operation in Kharg Island – Iran’s strategic oil hub – while Iranians have started laying mines and moved additional forces to the Island.
The Kharg island is said to handle roughly 90 percent of the country’s crude exports.
The Trump administration has been weighing using US troops to seize the island and use it as leverage to get them to open the Strait of Hormuz, US media reported.
‘Only 800 to 1,000 troops would be needed on Kharg Island’
A former commander of the US Central Command, Joseph Votel, told TWZ.com last week that while only 800 to 1,000 troops would be needed on Kharg Island, they would require logistical backup that would need protection as well.
Votel said the troops would be very vulnerable and doubted that taking the island would provide any particular tactical advantage.
It would be “kind of an odd thing to do… But we could certainly do it if we had to,” Votel was quoted as saying.
Tehran mines Kharg island
A day after sections of the US Media reported that the US is beefing up its ground presence in the Persian Gulf with a possible aim of taking over the key Kharg Islands in Iran, it has now been revealed that the Iranians have started laying mines and moved additional forces to the Island.
A CNN report quoting sources suggested that Iran has also been laying traps, including anti-personnel and anti-armor mines, around the island, where US troops could possibly stage an amphibious landing.
Earlier, Speaker of Iran’s Parliament, MB Ghalibaf, said Iran is monitoring all enemy movements. In a post on X, he said, “Based on some intelligence reports, Iran’s enemies are preparing to occupy one of the Iranian islands with support from one of the regional countries.”
“Our forces are monitoring all enemy movements, and if they take any step, all the vital infrastructure of that regional country will be targeted with relentless, unceasing attacks,” he added.
Would US ground operation do more harm than good? Analysts say…
Operation analysts told Reuters that the US’ purported objectives in Kharg Island could be achieved quickly, but leave US troops in great peril and prolong rather than shorten the war.
“A seizure and occupation of Kharg Island is more likely to expand and extend the war than it is to deliver any sort of decisive victory,” Ryan Brobst and Cameron McMillan of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote, as per Reuters.
They said US troops would be exposed to missile and drone attacks, including, potentially, small but lethal camera-wielding “first-person view drones” that are already used by the millions in Ukraine.
“Upon any successful strikes, the Iranian regime would be expected to release videos of those attacks online, using the graphic deaths of American service members as propaganda,” they were quoted by Reuters as saying.
Analysts told Reuters Trump would also hope that taking Kharg Island would force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him with potential leverage in future negotiations.
However, Tehran could opt to lay more mines to target shipping, including floating mines deployed from the coast, which would make the region even more hazardous for shipping, which has already been significantly disrupted by the conflict.
