Kamal Ghorui
(Screen grabs: X @CENTCOM)
United States secretary of war Pete Hegseth issued a strong warning on social media, saying there will be lethal consequences for anyone who targets American citizens.The message, shared by CENTCOM on X, read, “If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation, and we will kill you.”
Along with the message, a 21-second video clip was released showing what the military described as its current reach. The footage included “unclassified” videos of vehicles and structures being bombed and destroyed by US forces during recent operations.The warning comes amid escalating tensions following the joint US-Israel military strike on February 28 on Iranian territory. The strike resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with other senior figures, prompting a fierce response from Tehran.In response, Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones targeting US assets and allies across the region, including Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, widening the conflict in West Asia.Also read |‘Decimated their whole evil empire’: Is US responsible for Iran school bombing that killed 160? What Trump saidUS President Donald Trump also claimed that the United States had successfully neutralised the entire Iranian leadership, describing the military action as the removal of a major “cancer” from the global stage.“We’re winning the war by a lot. We’ve decimated their whole evil empire.It’ll continue I’m sure for a little while…The war itself is going unbelievably. It’s as good as it can be,” Trump made the remarks aboard Air Force One while en route to Miami. “We’ve wiped out their (Iranian) navy, 44 ships. We’ve wiped out their air force, every plane. We’ve wiped out most of their missiles. You see the missiles aren’t coming much anymore. We’ve also hit their manufacturing areas where they make the missiles very hard. Their drone capacity is way down and we’ve hurt them where it hurts, including about every form of leadership you can have we’ve wiped out,” he added.Meanwhile, the humanitarian toll in Iran continues to rise more than a week into the conflict. According to Al Jazeera, as cit official figures show that “over 1,300 people have been killed” since the violence began.
