US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said Iran's air force and navy had been wiped out and described disarray in the Iranian military's ranks.
Mr Hegseth said the US was winning the war, now in its fifth day, had plenty of interceptor missiles and could outlast the Iranian military.
“Senior generals, mid-level officers, enlisted ranks, they can't talk or communicate, let alone mount a co-ordinated and sustained offensive,” he told a media conference. “That's not great for morale. The Iranian Air Force is no more. Built for 1996, destroyed in 2026.”
The Iranian navy “rests at the bottom” of the Arabian Gulf, he added.
Mr Hegseth added that a US submarine had sunk an Iranian vessel in international waters. At least 101 sailors are missing and 78 wounded in the attack off Sri Lanka's coast.
“America is winning – decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,” Mr Hegseth said. The US and Israel will soon have complete uncontested air dominance over Iran, he added.
The US has used “twice the air power of the Iraq war of 2003, minus Paul Bremer and the nation-building”, he added, referring to the “administrator” the US imposed to lead Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussain. “We are just getting started … we are accelerating not decelerating,” Mr Hegseth said.
He said the Pentagon is investigating a strike on a girls' school in southern Iran, where authorities says scores of pupils were killed.
Gen Dan Caine, the Pentagon’s senior officer, said Iran is less capable of firing drones and ballistic missiles than it was at the start of the conflict.
“As of this morning, Central Command is making steady progress. Iran’s ballistic missile shots fired are down 86 per cent from the first day of fighting, with a 23 per cent decrease just in the last 24 hours,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said alongside Mr Hegseth. He added that drone attacks are down 73 per cent.
Mr Hegseth said the US had struck those responsible for an assassination plot against President Donald Trump in 2024.
“While that was not the best of the effort by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, never raised by the President or anybody else, I ensured and others ensured that those who were responsible for that were eventually part of the target list,” he said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran was being "absolutely crushed". American forces have struck more than 2,000 targets, "destroying hundreds and hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers and drones", she added.
