The US president says that on a scale of one to 10, he would rate the success of the war at 15, as Iran details the civilian sites affected.
US officials say their campaign against Iran has been successful and stress that Washington is in the process of crushing the government in Tehran “mercilessly.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the US military is relaxing the rules of engagement and operating with little restraint as casualties, including hundreds of civilian deaths, rise in Iran.
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“Iranian leaders are looking up and seeing nothing but American and Israeli air power every minute of every day, until we decide it’s all over and Iran won’t be able to do anything about it,” Hegseth said.
He added that US planes over Iran are “monitoring the skies, selecting targets” and bringing “death and destruction from the sky, around the clock.”
“This was never intended to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight,” Hegseth said. “We punch them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Hegseth’s comments represented an admission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Only a Nazi mentality can unleash, in cold blood, death and destruction on another nation just to ‘satisfy the wishes’ of its boss,” Baghaei wrote in X.
Still, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt echoed the US defense chief’s language later on Wednesday.
“In the next few hours, we will achieve that dominance over the skies, which means the United States military will unleash a barrage of missiles and weapons on Iran to hit these specific targets that the War Department has identified as crucial,” Leavitt said.
Iranian officials have reported many US and Israeli attacks on civilian targets, including schools and hospitals, across the country.
Baghaei on Wednesday detailed a list of incidents of what he said were US-Israeli attacks on civilian sites, including residential buildings, street markets and medical centres.
‘Do not target civilians’
In the early hours of the US-Israeli campaign on February 28, an attack hit a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab, killing 165 people.
On Wednesday, Leavitt said the Pentagon is “investigating” the incident.
“I will reaffirm that the War Department and the United States military do not attack civilians,” he told reporters.
During a briefing on Wednesday, the Pentagon had shown a map illustrating US strikes on Iran during the first 100 hours of the offensive. According to the graphic, two attacks appear to have occurred in or near Minab.
The United States and Israel have killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several senior officials, and have been attacking Iranian ships and military facilities.
But the conflict, which quickly escalated into a regional war, shows no signs of abating. Iran has also been accused of launching missiles and drones at civilian targets in the Gulf region, including energy facilities, hotels and airports.
Despite thousands of American and Israeli attacks, the Iranian ruling structure remains in place despite the attacks, with no visible internal challenge emerging against the Islamic Republic system.
Despite the misery, destruction and mass displacement that are intensifying across the Middle East, US President Donald Trump praised the war effort on Wednesday.
“And we’re doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly, I would say,” Trump said. “Someone said, ‘On a scale of 10, where would you rate it?’ I said about 15”.
