By Chris Summers

The United States has struck more than 5,000 targets across Iran since the start of Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, Central Command (CENTCOM) said in an X post on March 9.

“CENTCOM forces are striking targets to dismantle the Iranian regime’s security status, prioritizing locations that pose an imminent threat.”

More than 50 ships have been damaged or destroyed, including the IRIS Dena, which was sunk by a torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka on March 4.

CENTCOM listed at least 30 different U.S. planes, ships, drones, missiles, and weapons systems used against the Iranian regime since 1:15 a.m. EDT on Feb. 28.

The Iranian targets struck included command and control centers, the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), intelligence sites, air defense systems, ballistic missile sites, and missile and drone manufacturing plants, the post said.

At a Pentagon briefing on March 10, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, “On day 10 of Operation Epic Fury, we are winning with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus on our objectives.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said, “We’re making substantial progress towards destroying the Iranian navy in the first 10 days of the conflict.”

He said more than 50 Iranian naval ships had been taken out of action, using a combination of “artillery fighters, bombers, and sea-launched missiles.”

‘Perfectly Organized Chaos’

Speaking of the teamwork shown by pilots and crews on the aircraft carriers USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln, Caine said, “This beautiful symphony of American spirit is the definition of perfectly organized chaos.”

Asked by a journalist about resistance from Iranian armed forces, Caine said, “They’re fighting, and I respect that, but I don’t think they’re more formidable than what we thought.”

Hegseth said: “For 47 years, these barbaric savages in the Iranian regime have murdered our brothers in arms, my guys, your guys, our guys, through their terrorist proxies and cowardly attacks. Now, they race toward a nuclear bomb to hold the world hostage.”

“The mullahs are desperate and scrambling like the terrorist cowards they are,” said Hegseth, who accused the Iranians of deliberately firing missiles from schools and hospitals.

“We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth said the Trump administration would not get dragged into a “quagmire” like some previous presidents, and he said Operation Epic Fury was very different from those “never-ending, nebulously-scoped missions.”

The secretary of war said there was no “mission creep” and that President Donald Trump would decide when to end the strikes.

In response to a question about minimizing civilian casualties, Hegseth told the March 10 briefing, “No nation takes more precautions to ensure there’s never targeting of civilians than the United States of America.”

“Where things happen that need to be investigated, we will investigate,” he said.

“We take things very, very seriously and investigate them thoroughly, which takes time … unlike Iran, who targets civilians indiscriminately,” Hegseth said, adding that intelligence suggests the Iranians had moved rocket launchers into civilian neighborhoods, near schools and hospitals, “to prevent our ability to strike.”

During the Gaza conflict, the Iranian proxy Hamas was accused by the Israeli military of using the Al Shifa hospital as a shield for tunnels and operational centers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.