WASHINGTON, March 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. forces on Thursday destroyed an Iranian navy vessel described as a "drone carrier," the U.S. Central Command said.
"Today, an Iranian drone carrier, roughly the size of a WWII aircraft carrier, was struck and is now on fire," the command said in a post on the social platform X.
"U.S. forces aren't holding back on the mission to sink the entire Iranian Navy," said the post.
U.S. forces have sunk or destroyed more than 30 Iranian navy vessels since the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran early Saturday, said Adam. Brad Cooper, commander of the Central Command, at a news conference together with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Command's headquarters in Tampa, Florida, earlier on Thursday.
Over the last 24 hours, Iranian ballistic missile attacks have declined by 90 percent and drone attacks by 83 percent while U.S. strikes on Iran's navy "have intensified," he said.
In the past 72 hours, U.S. forces have struck nearly 200 targets deep inside Iran, including around Tehran, Cooper said, adding that U.S. B-2 bombers dropped dozens of 2,000-pound penetrative bombs on buried ballistic missile launchers.
The U.S. military has also struck Iran's "equivalent of Space Command," Cooper said.
Hegseth said the war with Iran will escalate in the coming days.
"The amount of firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically," Hegseth said. "When we say more to come, it's more fighter squadrons, it's more capabilities, it's more defensive capabilities and it's more bomber pulses more frequently."
The U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran have set off a regional exchange of fire that entered its sixth day on Thursday, leading to increasing casualties and major political and security consequences, with impacts rippling across the region. ■