CNN ONLINE

Iran has been laying traps and moving additional military personnel and air defenses to Kharg Island in recent weeks in preparation for a possible US operation to take control of the island, according to multiple people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue.

The Trump administration has been weighing using US troops to seize the tiny island in the northeastern Persian Gulf — an economic lifeline for Iran that handles roughly 90 percent of the country’s crude exports — as leverage over the Iranians to coerce them to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, CNN has reported.

But US officials and military experts say there would be significant risks involved in such a ground operation, including a large number of US casualties. The island has layered defenses, and the Iranians have moved additional shoulder-fired, surface-to-air guided missile systems known as MANPADs there in recent weeks, the sources said.

“I would be very worried about this,” said retired Adm James Stavridis, the former Nato Supreme Allied Commander who now serves as a CNN military analyst. “Iranians are clever and ruthless. They will do everything they can to inflict maximum casualties on US forces both on the ships at sea, and especially once ground troops are anywhere in their sovereign territory.”

Iran has also been laying traps including anti-personnel and anti-armor mines around the island, the sources said, including on the shoreline where US troops could possibly stage an amphibious landing if Trump moved forward with a ground operation.

Some allies of the president are raising serious questions about whether there is a need to attempt such an operation, since successfully taking the island would not, on its own, resolve problems related to the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s stranglehold on the global energy market, the source added.

US Central Command declined to comment on Iranian actions on Kharg. The US military had already targeted Kharg with strikes on March 13, with Central Command saying that 90 targets had been hit, including “naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites.” Trump had announced the attack by saying that US forces had avoided hitting oil infrastructure on the island “for reasons of decency.”

An Israeli source said there is concern that taking control of Kharg would lead to attacks by Iranian drones and shoulder-fired missiles, leading to the deaths of American troops. The speaker of Iran’s parliament on Wednesday warned the country’s “enemies” against attempting to occupy any Iranian islands.