"Donald Trump claimed US forced had destroyed 'more than 30' Iranian 'mine-laying ships' in the Strait of Hormuz, as he spoke at a lunch with Trump Kennedy Centre board members on Monday. "We are aggressively dismantling Iran's defence industrial base and ability to rebuild its missiles and drone capability is getting down to close to zero and we're hammering their capacity to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz with more than 30 mine laying ships destroyed," he alleged. "We hit to the best of our knowledge all of their mine laying ships." Earlier Trump said he was assembling a coalition of 'about seven' allies help keep the Strait of Hormuz open - although these were not confirmed. He added that it would be a 'very bad future' for NATO if help was not forthcoming. Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi has said the Strait - which handles around 20 per cent of global oil traffic - "is open to friends and non-hostile countries, but closed to enemies and those who collaborate with them." The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Tehran responded with strikes on Israel and US assets in the region. The conflict soon widened to Israel and Hezbollah trading strikes across the border with Lebanon too. "