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By MICHELLE L. PRICE and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday spoke to widening considerations that the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran may spiral right into a protracted regional battle by declaring, “This isn’t Iraq. This isn’t limitless.”
Hegseth, together with Air Power Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, held the Trump administration’s first information briefing since Saturday’s strikes. President Donald Trump, whereas he’s performed just a few cellphone interviews with particular person reporters, has not taken questions on digital camera and solely launched two movies because the operation started.
Hegseth mentioned the operation had a “clear, devastating, decisive mission” to “destroy the missile risk” from Iran, destroy its navy and “no nukes.”
“No silly guidelines of engagement, no nation constructing quagmire, no democracy constructing train, no politically appropriate wars. We struggle to win, and we don’t waste time or lives,” Hegseth mentioned.
He additionally advised the U.S. was not looking for to vary the Iranian regime with the killing of Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
“This isn’t a so-called regime change struggle, however the regime positive did change and the world is best off for it,” Hegseth mentioned.
The briefing comes because the battle has intensified right into a wider struggle within the area. Iran and its allied armed teams have launched missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. navy targets within the Center East.
4 American troops have been killed in motion. Trump on Sunday predicted there could be extra U.S. casualties.
Caine on Monday mentioned the U.S. anticipated to have further losses.
“We grieve with you, and we’ll always remember you,” he mentioned of the relations of these killed.
The newest signal of the escalating upheaval got here when U.S. ally Kuwait “mistakenly shot down” three American fighter jets throughout a fight mission as Iranian plane, ballistic missiles and drones had been attacking. U.S. Central Command mentioned all six pilots ejected safely from the American F-15E Strike Eagles and had been in steady situation.
U.S. officers haven’t provided any exit plan or provided indicators that the battle would finish anytime quickly, and the Khamenei solid doubt on the way forward for the Islamic Republic and hurtled the area into broader instability.
In laying out a case for the strikes, Hegseth pointed to the Iranian regime as having began the battle from its inception, declaring that for 47 years it has “waged a savage, one-sided struggle towards America.”
“Their struggle on Individuals has develop into our retribution towards their Ayatolloah and his demise cult,” he mentioned.
He didn’t level to any risk of an imminent nuclear risk from Iran, and he mentioned once more that final summer time’s strikes by the U.S. and Israel “obliterated their nuclear program to rubble.”
As a substitute, Hegseth pointed to threats from different weaponry similar to ballistic missiles and drones that justified the operation.
“Iran was constructing highly effective missiles and drones to create a traditional protect for his or her nuclear blackmail ambitions,” Hegseth mentioned.
He mentioned that in negotiations with U.S. officers main as much as the assault, Iranian officers had been “stalling.”
“The previous regime had each probability to make a peaceable and smart deal. However Tehran was not negotiating,” Hegseth mentioned.
Trump, in an interview Sunday with The New York Occasions, mentioned the assault may final “4 to 5 weeks.”
Hegseth dismissed questions on the time-frame and mentioned, “President Trump has all of the latitude on the planet to speak about how lengthy it might or could not take. 4 weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It may transfer up. It may transfer again.”
The Republican president mentioned the U.S. and Israel had struck lots of of targets already. That included Israel and the U.S. bombing Iranian missile websites and focused its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and a number of warships.
Caine mentioned that, as with the operation that dropped large bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear amenities final 12 months, Epic Fury additionally utilized B-2 stealth bombers, which the chairman mentioned made a 37-hour spherical journey.
Caine a number of occasions referenced the usage of cyber applied sciences within the strikes, which he mentioned had “successfully disrupted communications and sensor networks,” leaving “the adversary with out the flexibility to coordinate or reply successfully.”
With out giving specifics, Caine mentioned the U.S. navy “delivered synchronized and layered results designed to disrupt, degrade, deny and destroy Iran’s means to conduct and sustained fight operations on the U.S. aspect.”
The Iranian Pink Crescent Society mentioned at the very least 555 individuals have been killed in Iran up to now by the U.S.-Israeli marketing campaign. Eleven individuals have been killed in Israel and 31 in Lebanon, in keeping with authorities there.
Related Press writers Meg Kinnard in Charleston, S.C., David Klepper and Ben Finley in Washington and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.
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