American forces have killed the leader of an Iranian assassination squad targeting Donald Trump, said Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defence as he gave an update on the Middle East conflict,
An Iranian assassination squad ‘attempted to kill Donald Trump’, the US Secretary of War has claimed.
Pete Hegseth told a press conference that US forces killed the head of the unit, telling reporters they had “hunted down and killed” the leader.
“Also yesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed,” he said.
“Iran tried to kill President Trump. And President Trump got the last laugh.”
And on the American progress in the Middle East conflict Hegseth asserted that the US is winning its military operation against Iran “decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.”
He says more forces including jet fighters and bombers soon will arrive in the region. He adds that the US “will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed.”
American forces have adequate munitions for ongoing operations against Iran said Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Hegseth added that the military used more advanced weapons at the start of the campaign but was switching to gravity bombs now that the US has control of Iranian skies, and stockpiles of the advanced weapons remain “extremely strong.”
Referring to drones Hegseth continued: “We have pushed every counter-UAS system possible forward, sparing no expense or capability. Like I said, this does not mean we stop everything.”
Meanwhile, Hegseth said a torpedo from a US submarine sank an Iranian warship and that the Tuesday night strike was the first such attack on an enemy since the Second World War.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo.”
Earlier, authorities said 32 people were rescued from the Iranian ship that was reported in distress off the coast of Sri Lanka but there were believed to be 140 people missing. It was not immediately clear what happened to the ship or how many people were on board. The US military said previously it had already destroyed 17 Iranian vessels, and that its goal was sinking “the entire navy”.