Tuesday will be most intense day of strikes on Iran, Hegseth says

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth called Tuesday the “most intense day” of US strikes on Iran as he decried the “barbaric savages” in the regime and accused Tehran of engaging in a “race to a nuclear bomb.”

“Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran,” Hegseth told journalists at a briefing at the Pentagon.

Hegseth’s statement came shortly after he said that “the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest amount of missiles they have fired yet” and said Iran’s leaders are “desperate, scrambling.”

“For 47 years, these barbaric savages in the Iranian regime have murdered our brothers in arms, my guys, your guys, our guys, through their terrorist proxies and cowardly attacks, now they race toward a nuclear bomb to hold the world hostage,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said joint US-Israeli strikes had resulted in a 90% reduction in Iranian missile launches against Israel and Gulf countries.

Caine said the joint strikes had hit 5,000 targets in Iran and that the US was continuing to degrade the Iranian navy.

- Agencies