Officials in the United States are claiming success in their campaign against Iran, stressing that Washington is in the process of crushing the government in Tehran “without mercy”.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the US military is loosening the rules of engagement and operating with little restraint as casualties, including hundreds of civilian deaths, mount in Iran.

“Iranian leaders [are] looking up and seeing only US and Israeli air power every minute of every day, until we decide it’s over, and Iran will be able to do nothing about it,” Hegseth said.

He added that US jets over Iran are “controlling the skies, picking targets” and bringing “death and destruction from the sky, all day long”.

“This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight,” Hegseth said. “We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Hegseth’s remarks represent an admission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Only a NAZI mentality can unleash, in cold blood, death & destruction on another nation just to ‘satisfy the desires’ of his boss,” Baghaei wrote on X.

Still, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt echoed the US defence chief’s language later on Wednesday.

“In the next few hours, we’ll be achieving that dominance over the skies, which means the United States military will be raining missiles and weapons down on Iran to hit these specific targets that have been identified as crucial to take out by the Department of War,” Leavitt said.

Iranian officials have reported many attacks by the US and Israel on civilian targets, including schools and hospitals, across the country.

Baghaei detailed on Wednesday a list of incidents of what he said were US-Israeli attacks on civilian sites, including residential buildings, street markets and medical centres.

‘Not targeting civilians’

In the early hours of the US-Israeli campaign on February 28, a strike hit a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab, killing 165 people.

On Wednesday, Leavitt said the Pentagon is “investigating” the incident.

“I will reaffirm that the Department of War and the United States armed forces do not target civilians,” she told reporters.

During a briefing earlier on Wednesday, the Pentagon had shown a map illustrating US attacks in Iran during the first 100 hours of the offensive. Two strikes appear to have occurred in or near Minab, according to the graphic.

The US and Israel have killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several top officials, and they have been striking Iranian ships and military installations.

But the conflict, which quickly turned into a regional war, shows no signs of subsiding. Iran has also been accused of launching missiles and drones at civilian targets in the Gulf region, including energy instalments, hotels and airports.

Despite thousands of US and Israeli strikes, the Iranian ruling structure remains standing despite the hits, with no visible internal challenge emerging against the Islamic Republic system.

Despite the misery, destruction and mass displacement that are intensifying across the Middle East, US President Donald Trump hailed the war effort on Wednesday.

“And we’re doing very well on the warfront – to put it mildly, I would say,” Trump said. “Somebody said: ‘On a scale of 10, where would you rate it?’ I said about 15.” (Aljazeera)

•PHOTO:A woman throws rose petals on the coffins during funeral of mostly children killed in what Iranian officials said was an Israeli-US strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, on March 3 [Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA via AP Photo]

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