US President Donald Trump said yesterday that American forces are in the process of incapacitating Iran’s Navy, claiming that nine Iranian warships have been sunk thus far.
“They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also!” he added. The claim came amid the rapidly escalating military conflict between Israel and the US on one side and Iran on the other.
Trump made the announcement in a social media post as the Pentagon intensified its bombings of Iran’s military, deploying B-2 stealth bombers from the US to strike at hardened, underground Iranian missile facilities with 2,000-lb bombs.
US strikes also pummelled Iran’s naval headquarters, largely destroying it, Trump said. “Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!” he added.
Iran’s military is retaliating with hundreds of missile and drone attacks, and the US confirmed the first three deaths of US service members killed in combat on Sunday. Another five have been seriously wounded during the conflict, the US military’s Central Command said.
The US-Israeli military operation, which sparked the fighting, managed to wipe out several leading figures of Iran’s military and political leadership, including the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The fighting between the two sides has engulfed the wider Middle East, with Iranian missiles targeting the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.
