Trump team signals devastating air campaign against Iran

Senior officials in the United States have projected an image of unyielding confidence in Washington’s ongoing military campaign against Iran, portraying the offensive as a decisive effort to weaken the leadership in Tehran and assert overwhelming military dominance, the Al Jazeera reported.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth described the conflict in stark terms, suggesting that American forces were operating with expanded latitude as they intensified air operations across Iranian territory. According to Hegseth, the US military had relaxed certain rules of engagement and was conducting sustained aerial operations aimed at crippling strategic targets.

“Iranian leaders are looking up and seeing only US and Israeli air power every minute of every day, until we decide it’s over, and Iran will be able to do nothing about it,” he said, asserting that American aircraft now dominate the skies above Iran.

Hegseth further stated that US warplanes were “controlling the skies, picking targets” and delivering what he described as relentless strikes. “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight,” he remarked, framing the campaign as a calculated display of military superiority.

The remarks drew an immediate and furious response from Iran. Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, condemned the comments as an open admission of grave violations of international law.

“Only a NAZI mentality can unleash, in cold blood, death and destruction on another nation just to satisfy the desires of his boss,” Baghaei wrote in a post on X, accusing Washington of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Later in the day, Karoline Leavitt, speaking on behalf of the White House, echoed the Pentagon’s confident tone. She suggested that the United States was on the verge of achieving full aerial dominance, a development she said would enable the military to intensify its strikes on designated targets across Iran.

“In the next few hours, we’ll be achieving that dominance over the skies,” Leavitt told reporters, adding that US forces would continue striking what she described as critical targets identified by the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have accused the United States and Israel of repeatedly striking civilian infrastructure during the campaign. Officials in Tehran say numerous attacks have targeted schools, hospitals, residential neighbourhoods and marketplaces across the country.

Baghaei cited a series of alleged incidents, including a particularly devastating strike in the southern Iranian city of Minab, where a girls’ school was reportedly hit during the early hours of the offensive on February 28. Iranian officials said the attack killed 165 people.

Addressing the allegation, Leavitt said the Pentagon had begun reviewing the incident. “I will reaffirm that the Department of War and the United States armed forces do not target civilians,” she told reporters.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pentagon officials displayed a map detailing American strikes conducted during the first 100 hours of the campaign. The graphic appeared to show two attacks in or near Minab, although US officials have not confirmed the circumstances surrounding the reported civilian casualties.

The military campaign has already resulted in the deaths of several senior Iranian figures, including Ali Khamenei, whose killing by US-Israeli strikes marked a dramatic escalation in the conflict. The joint offensive has also targeted Iranian naval vessels, missile facilities and military bases.

Despite the scale of the bombardment, however, the Iranian political system remains intact, and no major internal challenge to the Islamic Republic’s leadership has yet emerged.

The conflict has rapidly expanded beyond Iran’s borders, fuelling instability across the wider Middle East. Iran has been accused of retaliatory strikes using missiles and drones against civilian sites in Gulf countries, including energy facilities, airports and hotels, raising fears of a broader regional war.

Even as the humanitarian toll mounts — with widespread destruction, displacement and mounting casualties reported across the region — US President Donald Trump struck a triumphant note when speaking about the campaign, the Al Jazeera reported.

“And we’re doing very well on the warfront — to put it mildly,” Trump said. “Somebody asked me, on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about 15.”

His remarks underscored the stark contrast between Washington’s confident rhetoric and the grim realities unfolding across a region increasingly gripped by war.