Sen. Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that deals with defense appropriations, indicated on Wednesday that the war in Iran cost at least US$ 11 billion in the first six days, according to early estimates.

“I think it’s roughly accurate,” he told reporters, responding to a report that listed the cost estimate as $11.3 billion.Prior to those comments, CNN reported that the Pentagon told US lawmakers in a private briefing Tuesday that preliminary estimates suggest the war with Iran cost at least $11 billion in the first six days, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.

CNN previously reported that the US military used more than $5 billion worth of munitions in the first two days of the conflict.

Meanwhile, US President President Donald Trump has claimed in remarks on Wednesday that “we won” in the war with Iran, without providing substantial evidence of his claim.

“Let me say we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won, in the first hour it was over, but we won,” the president said.

Trump’s message on how long the war with Iran will last has been inconsistent, saying at times that the war was significantly ahead of schedule, that it would take four to six weeks, that we’ve “already won … but we haven’t won enough,” and that the strikes were “both” a war and a “short excursion.”

The president in his speech in Kentucky also told the crowd how he came up with the name Operation Epic Fury.

“They gave me, like, 20 names. And I’m like, falling asleep. I didn’t like any of them. Then I see Epic Fury. I said, ‘I like that name,’” the president said.

Source: CNN

- Agencies