President Donald Trump declared it a “great honour” to be killing members of the Iranian regime in a characteristically bellicose social media post early Friday, as the United States marked the 13th day of sustained combat operations against the Islamic Republic .
In a lengthy missive on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that US forces have effectively dismantled Tehran’s military capabilities, asserting that “Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth” .
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time – Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” Trump wrote, before drawing a numerical parallel between his presidency and the longevity of the Islamic Revolution.
“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!” Trump added.
The extraordinary statement came as US and Israeli strikes continued to pound Iranian targets, with intense airstrikes reported around Tehran and outlying areas early Friday .
It followed the first public statements from Iran’s newly installed Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who on Thursday vowed to keep fighting and threatened to open “other fronts” in the conflict
Behind the president’s triumphalist rhetoric lies a conflict exacting a mounting toll. US and Israeli attacks launched on February 28 have killed approximately 1,300 people, including several top Iranian officials. Independent monitoring suggests the death toll across the region has now surpassed 1,700.
American forces have struck more than 6,000 targets since operations began, according to US Central Command. The Pentagon disclosed this week that approximately 140 US service members have been wounded during the first ten days of sustained attacks, with eight listed as severely injured . Seven US troops have been killed in combat.
The campaign has also seen significant equipment losses. On Thursday, a US KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq during Operation Epic Fury, though Central Command emphasised the incident was not due to hostile or friendly fire.
It marked the fourth publicly known aircraft loss linked to US operations since the war began, following three F-15E Strike Eagle jets mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti forces earlier in the conflict .
Trump‘s latest broadside appeared calibrated to respond to the new Iranian leader’s defiant posture.
Mojtaba Khamenei, who assumed the supreme leadership after his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the war’s opening salvos, issued his first public statements on Thursday, resolving to continue fighting and promising “more pain” for Gulf Arab states.
The younger Khamenei, himself wounded in the attack that killed his father, said he was keeping a “file of revenge” and had studied “opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable.” An Iranian ambassador confirmed the new leader was wounded but described it as “not serious.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a different note, addressing the Iranian people directly.
“It is in your hands,” Netanyahu said at a news conference. “We are creating the optimal conditions for the fall of the regime.”
US and Israeli strikes have targeted security checkpoints across Iran to undermine the government’s ability to suppress dissent, according to monitoring group ACLED.
The conflict has widened significantly beyond Iran’s borders. Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq claimed responsibility for drone attacks on the UAE consulate in Erbil.
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed Friday that a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting the northern Kurdish regional capital, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission .
Israeli warplanes have pummeled Lebanon, striking even the busy heart of Beirut in response to missiles from Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
One strike killed a professor and the director of the science faculty at Lebanon’s only public university. Israeli strikes also killed 15 other people, including five children, in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry .
In Saudi Arabia, air defenses downed more than three dozen drones headed toward the kingdom’s Eastern Province over several hours Friday, marking an unusually large barrage.
The conflict’s economic reverberations are being felt globally. Oil prices have spiraled to $100 per barrel, and stocks have sunk worldwide over fears the war could drag on longer than anticipated . Brent crude peaked earlier this week at $119.50 per barrel following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil normally flows .
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Iran has made clear it plans to keep up attacks on energy infrastructure and use the effective closure of the strait as leverage. “Global energy security is contingent on respect for Iran’s sovereignty,” said Iran’s ambassador to Tunisia, claiming Iranian naval forces had “established full control” over the waterway .