Hegseth: Iran is ‘toast,’ more US forces on the way

The US “is winning” in its war on Iran, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says in a Pentagon press briefing, “devastatingly, decisively, and without mercy.”

Hegseth stresses that only four days of the campaign have gone by, but “metrics are shifting, dust is settling and more forces are arriving.”

“We will take all the time we need to make sure we succeed,” he says, citing the US commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump.

The results of the campaign “have been incredible,” he argues.

Hegseth says that the US is “leading” the campaign. “But when you add the Israeli Defense Forces, a devastatingly capable force, the combination is sheer destruction for our radical Islamist Iranian adversaries.”

Iran is “toast, and they know it,” he says, “or at least, soon enough, they will know it.”

Hegseth stresses that the US and Israel “have only just begun” hunting and degrading Iranian capabilities.