CENTCOM commander says 8K targets hit in Iran: ‘Their navy is not sailing’

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Adm. Brad Cooper said Saturday that the Pentagon’s operation in Iran has struck more than 8,000 targets since the start of the Middle East conflict.

In his update, posted to social platform X, Cooper said the campaign has weakened Iran’s combat capabilities and crippled its naval forces. He added that the strikes have successfully targeted Iranian missile sites and attack drones.

“Their navy is not sailing, their tactical fighters are not flying, and they’ve lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at the high rates seen at the beginning of the conflict,” the commander said in a video.

The comments come after President Trump signaled Friday that the U.S. is “getting very close” to meeting its objectives in the region.

The Trump administration is working to secure safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, Cooper noted that American forces have struck 130 Iranian vessels as part of the “largest elimination of a navy over a three-week period since World War II.”

The U.S. and Iran are locked in a struggle for control of the strategic waterway, a narrow channel between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman that carries about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.

Commercial shipping traffic has been stifled for weeks due to the de facto blockade imposed as part of Tehran’s retaliatory campaign, intensifying fears of prolonged fuel supply disruptions and global inflation.

Escalating attacks in the Gulf, including on vessels and energy infrastructure, have pushed crude oil prices as high as $119 per barrel in recent days. The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, was $112 per barrel as of 10:30 a.m. EDT Saturday.

The Trump administration is also weighing plans to escort tankers through the strait, a move experts say is risky, time-consuming and can be expensive. Officials are also reportedly considering sending ground troops to Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export terminal in the Gulf.

Cooper affirmed on Saturday that reopening the Strait of Hormuz remains a key objective in the ongoing joint U.S.-Israeli military operation, pointing to the recent drop of multiple 5,000 deep-penetrator bombs on an underground Iranian missile site along the coastline.

“We not only took out that facility but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements,” he said. “Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result, and we will not stop pursuing these targets.”

The Pentagon is deploying thousands of additional Marines and sailors to the Middle East, even as Trump denied plans to order U.S. service members into a ground invasion.

The president rejected the possibility of a ceasefire in Iran on Friday, telling reporters that his administration was “not looking to do that.”

“You don’t do a ceasefire when you’re obliterating the other side. They don’t have a navy. They don’t have an air force,” he said.

At least 13 U.S. servicemembers have been killed, and approximately 232 others have been wounded since the conflict began on Feb. 28, according to figures provided by the Pentagon. 

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