After weeks of moving U.S. assets into the region, the U.S. and Israel conducted joint strikes against Iran early Eastern time Saturday morning in what is being called Operation Epic Fury.
The strikes killed Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to reports.
Khamenei succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He had the final say on all major policies, led Iran’s clerical establishment and personally commanded the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard – the two main centers of power in the country’s theocracy.
“Two days ago, under the direction and direct orders of President Donald J. Trump, the Department of War launched Operation Epic Fury, the most lethal, most complex and most precise aerial operation in history,” Hegseth, the secretary of the Department of War, said in his first public comments since the attacks.
He was joined in the briefing by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The regime’s war on America began the day it seized power in Tehan by storming the U.S. Embassy in 1979, according to Hegseth.
Iranian students held 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days during the Iranian Revolution.
“For 47 long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged a savage, one-sided war against America. They didn't always declare it openly, except for their constant chants of death to America. They did it through the blood of our people,” Hegseth said, noting that American blood has been shed through “car bombs in Beirut, rocket attacks on our ships, murders at our embassies, roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, funded and armed by Iranian Quds Force and IRGC killers.”
For Hegseth, Iranian-supported attacks on U.S. personnel are personal after he witnessed war, and its gruesome results, in the Middle East.
He reached the rank of major in Army National Guard units in Minnesota and Washington, D.C., while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was twice awarded the Bronze Star and other medals.
“My generation of veterans carry the names of brothers who never came home, brothers butchered by Iranian-backed roadside bombs and well-armed militias, thousands of our own,” Hegseth said.
Sec. of State Marco Rubio is expected to brief top congressional leaders in both the House and Senate at approximately 4 p.m. ET Monday on the strikes and related national security issues.
Congress is expected to discuss the possibility of halting or limiting further U.S. military action against Iran without congressional authorization.
Hegseth applauded Trump for being the first U.S. president to hold Iran accountable.
“If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation, and we will kill you,” he said.
He added, “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it.”
