Disruption in the strategic waterway has roiled global economies.
President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
Following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, initial U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan earlier this month failed to reach a peace deal. On Tuesday, Trump announced he was extending the ceasefire and continuing the blockade until Iran's proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded "one way or the other."
U.S. Central Command said that 33 vessels have been turned back as part of its blockade on ships leaving from or heading to Iranian ports. Most of those ships have been oil tankers.
President Donald Trump indicated Thursday morning that there is no centralized leader in Iran right now, claiming that the government has been fractured between moderates and hardliners as the U.S. indefinitely extends its ceasefire with the country.
“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know!” Trump said in a social media post.
“The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY!” he added.
Trump’s post comes days after the U.S. extended its ceasefire indefinitely, citing divisions within the Iranian government that are hindering negotiations on a peace deal.
Trump also again claimed that the U.S. has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz even as Iranian attacks on merchant ships have continued this week and traffic through the region remains severely limited.
-ABC News' Nicholas Kerr
President Donald Trump said in a Thursday social media post that he ordered the Navy to "shoot and kill" any boats putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz.
"I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote.
"There is to be no hesitation. Additionally, our mine 'sweepers' are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!" Trump added.
There are currently no U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz , but there are 17 U.S. Navy ships east of the strait in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. So far, all of the previous attacks on Iranian mine-laying ships have been from the air.
The president’s post comes a day after the Washington Post reported that a Pentagon assessment found that clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz could take as long as six months.
It is currently unclear if Iranian mine-laying operations remain underway in the Strait amid the ceasefire. The regime previously declared that it had mined a wide swath of the strait off of the coast of Oman.
-ABC News' Luis Martinez and Nicholas Kerr
Cargo tracking group Vortexa told ABC News it identified 34 sanctioned or Iranian-linked ships moving in and out of the Gulf of Oman through the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports which came into effect on April 13.
Fifteen of those were inbound toward Iran, while 19 were outbound away from Iran.
Of the observed outbound movements, six of the ships were confirmed to be laden with approximately 10.7 million barrels of Iranian crude oil.
However, after Vortexa shared its data and media outlets named three of those ships, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) publicly refuted that the three named ships had evaded the blockade.
CENTCOM said two of those ships -- the Hero II and Hedy -- had returned to an Iranian port, and that the third -- the Dorena -- was "under the escort of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after previously attempting to violate the blockade."
It was not immediately clear whether the M/T Majestic X, which the U.S. announced Thursday it had interdicted in the Indian Ocean for carrying oil from Iran, was also one of the ships tracked as having moved through the blockade.
Vortexa said that the blockade is having some effect but, "based on observed vessel activity, flows have continued, although in a more constrained and selective environment."
TankerTrackers.com, a maritime intelligence company that tracks crude oil shipments, told ABC News that they observed nine shipments of Iranian oil pass through the U.S. blockade between April 13 and 20, one of which has been sent back to Iran.
Of the nine shipments, eight were tankers belonging to Iran's National Iranian Tanker Company and one was independently-owned.
-ABC News' Victoria Beaule and Chris Looft
