WASHINGTON, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran retains "some capability" to attack assets of the United States and its allies in the Middle East, including oil facilities, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said on Thursday.
"They came into this fight with a lot of weapons," he said at the Pentagon's press conference. "That's why we continue to be as aggressive and assertive" in striking Iranian missile and drone launch sites.
Caine further said the U.S. military has deployed a range of weapons in the war with Iran, including A-10 Warthog aircraft to attack Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, AH-64 Apache helicopters in Iraq to strike alleged Iran-aligned militia groups and help shoot down Iranian drones, and 5,000-pound bunker-buster munitions against underground storage facilities.
When asked about Iran's ability to strike the assets of the United States and its allies with missiles, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also acknowledged: "They came into this fight with a lot of weapons."
Hegseth said that all 11 Iranian submarines had been destroyed and that the country's naval ports were "crippled."
Hegseth also said that Iranian missile strikes are down 90 percent and drone attacks 95 percent since the launch of the massive U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. These figures have not changed in more than a week.
Hegseth said that the United States is "obviously taking countermeasures" over the Internet blackout in Iran, but he could not discuss them publicly.
When asked about when or how the war will end, Hegseth said that Washington remains "on plan," but refused to provide a definitive timeline.
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is escalating after an Israeli strike Wednesday on Iran's South Pars gas field. Iran retaliated with attacks on Qatar's liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. As a consequence, global market oil and gas prices surged again on Thursday. ■
