United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has claimed that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been wounded in US-Israeli attacks on the country.
During a news conference at the Pentagon on Friday, Hegseth said Khamenei “is wounded and likely disfigured”.
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“He put our statement yesterday – a weak one actually – but there was no voice, and there was no video. It was a written statement,” Hegseth said.
The Pentagon chief did not provide evidence for his assessment, and Iran has not given any details about Khamenei’s condition. Iranian leaders also did not immediately respond to Hegseth’s claims.
Khamenei on Thursday issued his first public statement since taking over as supreme leader following the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on February 28, the first day of the United States and Israeli assault on Iran.
In written remarks that were read out on Iranian state television, Khamenei said Iran would attack all US bases in the region unless they were shuttered immediately and pledged to maintain the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“I would like to thank the brave fighters who are doing a great job at a time when our country is under pressure and under attack,” said the Iranian leader, who has not been seen publicly since the war began.
US President Donald Trump had said earlier this week that he was “not happy” with the appointment of Khamenei as Iran’s new supreme leader, suggesting that he may be targeted and killed like his father.
“I don’t know if it’s going to last. I think they made a mistake,” the US president said on Monday.
At least 1,444 people have been killed and 18,551 injured in US-Israeli attacks on Iran since the war began late last month, according to the latest figures from Iran’s Health Ministry.
While the US and Israel have said they are targeting Iranian leaders as well as military and nuclear infrastructure, Iran says thousands of civilian sites, such as schools and hospitals, have been attacked.
During his address on Friday, Hegseth said that US and Israeli attacks have struck more than 15,000 Iranian targets since February 28.
“We’re shooting down and destroying what missiles they still have in stock, but more importantly, ensuring that they have no ability to make more,” he said.
“Their production lines, their military plants, their defence innovation centres – defeated. Iran’s leadership is in no better shape. Desperate and hiding, they have gone underground, cowering. That is what rats do.”
Earlier on Friday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and top Iranian security official Ali Larijani were seen at a mass al-Quds Day demonstration in the capital, Tehran.
Mohamad Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said Hegseth’s remarks were aimed primarily at a US audience.
“Hegseth is clearly trying to project … confidence and success, trying to reassure the American citizenry,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera, noting that recent opinion polls show that many people in the US are opposed to the war in Iran.
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