US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran had “begged for this ceasefire” and claimed that Operation Epic Fury had “decimated” Iran’s military during a news conference at the Pentagon, The Guardian reports.
Hegseth stated that Iran’s missile program had been “functionally destroyed,” adding that the country’s navy “is at the bottom of the sea” and that the United States now “owns their skies.”
According to him, US forces carried out 800 strikes on Tuesday night, targeting and destroying Iran’s defense industrial base.