Trump: US Military Pursuing Remaining Iranian Naval Fleet
PRESIDENT of the United States, Donald Trump, on Sunday (1 March), claimed that US forces have sunk nine Iranian Navy warships and destroyed much of the Iranian naval command centre following a brutal and deadly joint Israel-US military strike on Iran on Saturday (28 February).
“We have destroyed and sunk nine Iranian Navy ships, some of which are relatively large and significant. In a separate strike, we destroyed much of their naval command centre,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, as reported by Xinhua.
Trump added that US military forces are now pursuing the remaining Iranian naval fleet. Previously, he stated to Fox News that 48 senior Iranian officials were killed in the US-Israeli strike against Iran.
US CENTCOM confirmed that Iran’s claim of striking the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier with ballistic missiles was false.
“The Lincoln aircraft carrier was not struck. The missiles launched fell far from the aircraft carrier,” said US CENTCOM. The command centre also stated that three US soldiers were killed and five others seriously wounded during military operations against Iran.
The US and Israel launched a major air campaign against Iran on Saturday morning, which triggered retaliation from Tehran through waves of missiles and drones targeting Israeli territory and US military bases in the Gulf region.
US Central Command also revealed that American forces targeted Iran’s Jamaran-class corvette during the early stages of the military campaign codenamed Operation Epic Fury, which was launched on Saturday (28 February) morning local time.
“The ship is currently sinking to the floor of the Gulf of Oman at a dock in Chabahar,” said US CENTCOM.
Since the operation commenced, US military forces have launched strikes against more than 1,000 targets in Iran, including headquarters of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). On Saturday evening, US stealth B-2 bombers armed with 2,000-pound bombs struck Iranian ballistic missile facilities with strong defences, added CENTCOM.