The White House says deploying United States ground troops in Iran is not currently part of the military strategy in the ongoing conflict with Tehran.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said ground forces were “not part of the plan for this operation at this time”, though she did not rule out that options could change as the situation develops.
Her comments come amid continuing U.S.-Israeli air strikes on Iran that began on 28 February. Washington says more than 2,000 targets have been hit so far, and officials claim the joint campaign is moving towards “complete and total control” of Iranian airspace.
Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks against Israel and sites linked to the United States across the Gulf region. The strikes have killed at least six U.S. service members and wounded several others.
Leavitt said President Donald Trump plans to attend the transfer ceremony for the six American troops killed in the attacks.
Meanwhile, at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said that Iran was firing fewer missiles as the war progressed and added that U.S. strikes will now expand inland inside Iran.
"Iran's theater ballistic missile shots fired are down 86% from the first day of fighting, with a 23% decrease just in the last 24 hours. And there one way attack drone shots are down 73% from the opening days," he said.
"This progress has allowed CENTCOM to establish localised air superiority across the southern flank of the Iranian coast and penetrate their defenses with overwhelming precision and firepower. We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of maneuver for U.S. forces."
Asked separately about the possibility of U.S. ground forces in Iran, Caine said decisions on troop deployments rest with policymakers, adding that the military’s role is to execute policy rather than determine it.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also added the United States was winning in the war against Iran and that the U.S. military could fight as long as needed.
Hegseth also said the U.S. military said that it killed an Iranian official who headed a unit behind an alleged assassination plot against President Donald Trump but that the target was not the initial focus of the war.
The Trump administration has defended the air campaign, saying the operation was launched in response to what it describes as cumulative threats from Iran against the United States.
Tensions across the Middle East continue to escalate following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory att...
More than 200 people died on Tuesday in a landslide triggered by heavy rains at the Rubaya coltan mine in easte...
Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel early on Thursday, sending millions of residents into bomb shelters ...
Iranian sailors who survived a U.S. submarine strike in the Indian Ocean were recovering at a hospita...
A power outage struck most of Cuba, including Havana, the state electric utility said on Wednesday (5 Marc...
Tensions across the Middle East continue to escalate following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory attacks in the Gulf region, with military operations and regional security developments continuing to unfold.
More than 200 people died on Tuesday in a landslide triggered by heavy rains at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's mines ministry said on Wednesday.
Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel early on Thursday, sending millions of residents into bomb shelters as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran entered its sixth day and just hours after moves to halt the U.S. air assault were blocked in Washington.
Iranian sailors who survived a U.S. submarine strike in the Indian Ocean were recovering at a hospital in the Sri Lankan port city of Galle, authorities said on Thursday (5 March), a day after at least 87 were killed in the attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. military has enough stockpiled weapons to fight wars "forever"; in a social media post late on Monday. The remarks came hours before conflict in Iran and the Middle East entered its fourth day.
U.S. first lady, Melania Trump chaired a UN Security Council meeting on children and education in conflict on Monday (2 March), a move criticised by Iran as hypocritical following U.S. and Israeli strikes that triggered a UN warning about risks to children.
A torpedo from a U.S. submarine sunk an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth told reporters as the Iranian conflcit entered its fifth day on Wednesday.
Shahid Motahari Sub-Speciality Hospital in northern Tehran and parts of the Golestan Palace were bombed on day two of the U.S.‑Israel strikes. AnewZ Touraj Shiralilou is in Iran's capital city and said that the facility was flattened in an airstrike.
At least 42 people have been killed and 104 wounded in fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Tuesday. The latest death toll figures come as fighting between the two neighbours enters its sixth day.
Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel early on Thursday, sending millions of residents into bomb shelters as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran entered its sixth day and just hours after moves to halt the U.S. air assault were blocked in Washington.
Iranian sailors who survived a U.S. submarine strike in the Indian Ocean were recovering at a hospital in the Sri Lankan port city of Galle, authorities said on Thursday (5 March), a day after at least 87 were killed in the attack.
Tensions across the Middle East continue to escalate following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory attacks in the Gulf region, with military operations and regional security developments continuing to unfold.
Israel has warned residents to leave a significant area in southern Lebanon, instructing them to move north of the Litani River as hostilities with the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah intensified on Wednesday.
A U.S. submarine strike sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, leaving at least 80 dead, the country’s deputy foreign minister said. Meanwhile, Iran postponed the funeral of its late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to state media.
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