The newly elected Iran's Supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been wounded and 'likely disfigured', said the United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth made the comment on Friday during the media briefing and asserted that the President would decide the vitals of the war.
He also claimed that the United States and Israel have struck more than 15,000 targets across Iran thus far, “decimating the Iranian regime”.
Hegseth stated that the pace, tempo, and timing of the war with Iran will be decided by President Trump. “Today, yet again, will be the highest number of strikes."
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"We're on a plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen before... soon—and very soon—ALL of Iran's defense companies will be destroyed," he added.
Speaking about Operation Fury, the Defence Secretary stated that never before has a modern, capable military, which Iran used to have, been so quickly destroyed and made combat ineffective — devastated.
"Iran has no air defenses. Iran has no air force. Iran has no navy. Their missiles, their missile launchers and drones are being destroyed or shot out of the sky. Their missile volume is down 90%... and as the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz."
On Wednesday, Trump had told G7 leaders that Iran was 'about to surrender'.
On Thursday, the new supreme leader of Iran reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz would stay closed amid the continuous strikes by US and Israel on Tehran; a closure which has pushed the world into an oil crisis with crude oil hitting even $120 a barrel over the past week.
He asserted that his country would not budge to any pressure. Mojtaba also thanked the country's military, who he said had stopped Iran from being dominated or divided as it came under attack.
“I would like to thank the brave fighters who are doing a great job at a time when our country is under pressure and under attack,” he said, and pledged that Iran would continue fighting.
President Trump has meanwhile said that he would be pounding Iran “very hard over the next week” even as he issued a 30-day waiver for countries to purchase Russian oil.
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