From The Hill: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday morning that Iran’s new supreme leader is “wounded and likely disfigured,” confirming reports that Mojtaba Khamenei was injured early on in the U.S. war against Iran.
“Iran’s leadership is in no better shape, desperate and hiding. They’ve gone underground, cowering. That’s what rats do. We know the new so-called not-so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” Hegseth told reporters during a press briefing at the Pentagon.
Hegseth confirmed multiple reports stating that Khamenei, 56, was wounded during the first day of airstrikes by the U.S. and Israeli militaries on Iran.
Iran’s longtime leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike at the beginning of the war, and his son Mojtaba was named Iran’s new leader.
President Donald Trump was asked if he thought the newly elected leader was wounded on Thursday.
“I think he probably is,” Trump said. “I think he’s damaged, but I think he’s probably alive in some form, yeah.”
In his first official statement as leader, Khamenei said Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed. He also said Iran will continue its attacks on U.S. Gulf allies and threatened that “other fronts” in the war “in which the enemy has little experience” would be explored if the U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran continue.
Hegseth addressed rumors that Iran may be placing new mines in the Strait of Hormuz. During a press briefing Friday with Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine at the Pentagon, Hegseth said, “We have no clear evidence of that.”
Ship traffic remains largely stopped in the Strait due to the conflict.
“That’s not a strait we’re going to allow to remain contested,” Hegseth told reporters.
CBS News reports:
U.S. forces are continuing to target Iran’s ballistic missiles and “continuing to destroy the Iranian navy,” Caine said, “and this means going after Iran’s mining capability and destroying their ability to go after commercial vessels.”
Since the war began on Feb. 28, the U.S. military struck about 6,000 targets in Iran as of Thursday, according to Central Command. The U.S. and Israel combined have hit more than 15,000 “enemy targets,” according to Hegseth.
Iran’s missile volume is down 90%, Hegseth told reporters Friday. All of Iran’s defense companies will be destroyed — all have been “functionally defeated,” he said.
But Iran’s assaults have continued, and oil prices have risen to over $100 a barrel while stock prices are sliding, even in the face of the president’s assertions that he’ll end the war soon and announcements of major oil reserve releases.
Meanwhile, President Trump has issued an ominous threat in an early Friday morning Truth Social post, leveled at Tehran
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time – Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” he wrote.
His full statement reads:
“We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise, yet, if you read the Failing New York Times, you would incorrectly think that we are not winning. Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time – Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Read more at The Hill
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