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War Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Friday morning press briefing that the U.S. “is decimating the radical Iranian regime’s military” and that the Islamic Republic’s new supreme leader was injured and “likely disfigured.”
“Desperate and hiding, they’ve gone underground, cowering,” Hegseth said of Iranian leadership.
“That’s what rats do. We know the new so-called not-so-Supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” he said.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth looks on during a joint press conference with Admiral Charles Bradford “Brad” Cooper II, Commander of US Central Command, at US Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, on March 5, 2026. (Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images)
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the beginning of the war, issued a written statement on Thursday that Hegseth described as “weak.”
“It was a written statement,” Hegseth said. “Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father dead. He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run and he lacks legitimacy. It’s a mess for them. Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know.”
In this picture obtained from Iran’s ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, looks on in Tehran on October 13, 2024. (Hamed JAFARNEJAD / ISNA / AFP via Getty Images)
“We’re on plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen before,” Hegseth said. “Soon, and very soon, all of Iran’s defense companies will be destroyed.”
Smoke and flames rise at the site of airstrikes on an oil depot in Tehran on March 7, 2026. (Sasan / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)
“I serve God, the troops, the country, the Constitution, and the president of the United States and answer only to those all in service of victory on the battlefield and the military objectives that we’ve laid out from day one: Defeat the missiles, missile launchers and defense industrial base, which I laid out today. Defeat the Navy and deny Iran the ability to have a nuclear weapon. Clear, decisive, achievable.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated
