The US president said he rates the war a 15 out of 10, as Iran details the damage to civilian facilities.
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US officials have claimed success in the campaign against Iran and stressed that the US government is “relentlessly” crushing Tehran’s government.
Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. military is relaxing its rules of engagement and operating with little restraint as casualties mount in Iran, including hundreds of civilian deaths.
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“Iran’s leaders look up and see only American and Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide this is over, and Iran won’t be able to do anything about it,” Hegseth said.
He added that US warplanes over Iran were “dominating the skies, targeting targets” and bringing “death and destruction from the skies all day long.”
“This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it’s not a fair fight,” Hegseth said. “We’re punching while they’re down, and that’s exactly how it should be.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai said Hegseth’s comments amounted to an admission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Only the Nazi spirit can ruthlessly unleash death and destruction on another country just to ‘satisfy the desires’ of its superiors,” Bagai wrote to X.
Still, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt echoed the defense secretary’s words late Wednesday.
“In the next few hours, we will achieve air superiority, which means the U.S. military will be raining missiles and weapons on Iran and striking specific targets that the Department of the Army has identified as critical to defeat,” Levitt said.
Iranian authorities have reported numerous attacks by the United States and Israel on civilian targets, including schools and hospitals across the country.
Bagai on Wednesday detailed a list of incidents he said were U.S. and Israeli attacks on civilian facilities such as homes, street markets and medical centers.
“We are not targeting civilians.”
Early in the morning of the US-Israel operation on February 28, a strike attacked a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab, killing 165 people.
On Wednesday, Levitt said the Pentagon was “investigating” the incident.
“The Department of the Army and the U.S. military reaffirm that they are not targeting civilians,” he told reporters.
At a briefing early Wednesday, the Pentagon showed a map showing the U.S. attack on Iran during the first 100 hours of the attack. According to images, two strikes appear to have occurred in or near Minab.
The United States and Israel have killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several senior officials, and have attacked Iranian ships and military facilities.
However, the conflict, which quickly escalated into a regional war, shows no signs of abating. Iran is also suspected of firing missiles and drones at civilian targets in the Gulf, including energy facilities, hotels and airports.
Despite thousands of attacks by the United States and Israel, Iran’s ruling structures remain in place despite the blows, and no visible internal challenges to the Islamic Republic’s regime have arisen.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised the war effort despite escalating misery, destruction and mass displacement across the Middle East.
“And we’re doing very well on the front lines, to say the least,” Trump said. “Someone said, ‘On a scale of 10 to 10, how would you rate it?’ I said about a 15.”
