US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said the US would again launch “the largest strike package yet” in the ongoing US-Israeli campaign in Iran, and said Israel’s recent strike on an Iranian gas field was a “warning.”

“To date, we’ve struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing. “That is not incremental. That is overwhelming force applied with precision. And again, today will be the largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was.”

Iran continued launching strikes at Israel on Thursday, without any injuries reported in nine salvos as of the afternoon. The Islamic Republic also continued its missile fire at targets in the Gulf. Meanwhile, Israel said it destroyed several Iranian navy vessels in its first-ever strike on northern Iran.

Trump has said Wednesday’s South Pars gas field strike was uncoordinated with the US, and that Israel would not hit Iran’s gas sites again, but that the US would if Iran kept up attacks on Gulf gas fields.

US sources told The Times of Israel and other media outlets that Washington had approved the strike. Neither Hegseth nor US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, who spoke alongside him at the Pentagon, repeated Trump’s claim.

Speaking at the Pentagon, Hegseth called the strike on South Pars “a warning” and urged Iran to stop its retaliatory strikes on energy sites across the Gulf, which have sent oil prices soaring.

“Iran has weaponized energy for decades. Israel clearly sent a warning, and [Trump] has made it clear, very clear. Iran knows when you hit Kharg Island and you hit military capabilities on Karg Island — which is the only thing we hit — we can hold anything at issue,” Hegseth said, referring to the key Iranian oil hub that was struck by the US over the weekend.

Israel and the US launched their campaign against Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize the regime and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile capacities. Iran has responded with missile and drone strikes across the region, and its proxies in Iraq and Lebanon have also carried out attacks, with Israel launching massive airstrikes in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s rocket barrages.

Despite the widening of the conflict, Hegseth projected confidence that the US would achieve its goals.

“We’re winning decisively and on our terms,” Hesgseth said, responding to concerns in US media that the conflict could turn into a “forever war,” saying that “nothing could be further from the truth,” and calling the operation “laser-focused.”

He warned that “the last job anyone in the world wants right now” would be “senior leader for the IRGC, or Basij,” calling them “temp jobs.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and its repressive volunteer Basij militia, have been among the main targets of the US-Israeli campaign.

Hegseth said the war’s objectives remain to “destroy missiles, launchers, and Iran’s defense industrial base so they cannot rebuild. Destroy their navy, and [ensure] Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”

Meanwhile, he said, Washington was “taking countermeasures” amid ongoing internet blackouts in Iran in order to communicate with the Iranian people and “certain audiences” during........

© The Times of Israel