TAMPA, Fla. — It was already Friday morning in Tehran when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was in Florida, issued a warning for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Hegseth stopped at U.S. Central Command at the MacDill Air Force Base, in the Tampa area, and at U.S. Southern Command in Doral.
“When we say more to come, it’s more fighter squadrons, ... it’s more defensive capabilities, and it’s more bomber pulses more frequently,” Hegseth said during a joint news conference with Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM’s commander.
Cooper said U.S. B-2 bombers had dropped “dozens of 2,000-pound penetrators” on Thursday in Iran.
“We are not just hitting what they have; we are destroying their ability to rebuild,” Cooper said, adding that the U.S. had hit 200 targets in the last 72 hours.
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Also on Thursday, in the White House, President Donald Trump urged Iranian diplomats to “help us shape a new and better Iran with great potential” and Iranians to “help take back your country.”
Trump was hosting Inter Miami CF soccer players in the East Room, and sent the message during the news conference.
“You will be perfectly safe with total immunity, or you will face, absolutely, guaranteed death,” Trump said.
The Israeli Defense Forces also continued strikes in Iran and southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah, a militant group and ally of Iran’s IRGC, was fighting.
Related story: Panic in Beirut as Israel warns people to evacuate from the city’s southern suburbs
Trump launched Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28. A joint U.S.-Israeli military strike in Tehran killed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s second supreme leader since 1989.
As the war widened, a drone strike killed six U.S. Army service members, including one from Florida, on March 1, in Kuwait.
The conflict’s death toll remained unclear. Last checked, the Lebanese health ministry reported 123 dead. Iran reported 1,230 dead, Israel reported at least 11 dead, and the Gulf states reported nine dead.
Related story: Chaos sown by Iran’s attacks across the Persian Gulf is key to its strategy
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