By Jack Phillips

The U.S. military has provided an operational update on the month-long war with Iran, announcing that more than 13,000 combat flights have been conducted so far alongside thousands of strikes on Iranian targets.

In a post on X on the evening of April 1, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote that more than 12,300 Iranian targets have been struck during the conflict. That is up by about 1,300 since the last CENTCOM update on March 28.

Since the start of the war on Feb. 28, there has been “undeniable progress” made so far, said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, in a statement posted by the command on April 2.

“We don’t see their navy sailing,” Cooper said. “We don’t see their aircraft flying, and their air and missile defense systems have largely been destroyed.”

Iran said on April 2 that it fired more missiles at locations across the Middle East, according to state-run media. The country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also said it would launch attacks on U.S. technology and other companies and accused them of playing a role in the war.

The U.S. military will continue to conduct strikes against Iran for the next two or three weeks, President Donald Trump said in a televised speech on April 1, asking Americans for patience.

“We are in this military operation, so powerful, so brilliant, against one of the most powerful countries for 32 days, and the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat,” Trump said. “This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future. The whole world is watching, and they can’t believe the power, strength, and brilliance.”

Trump also said he has cautious optimism that the people who are now in power in Iran, after more than a month of U.S. and Israeli strikes, are “less radical and much more reasonable” to deal with.

Late last month, the president warned that if Iran continued to attempt to block the passage of commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military would strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure. He also said the administration was in talks with Iranian officials who are in charge.

“If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously,” Trump reiterated in the April 1 speech. “We have not hit their oil, even though that’s the easiest target of all, because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding. But we could hit it, and it would be gone.”

The speech prompted the speaker of the Parliament of Iran to claim on April 2 that 7 million Iranians stood ready to fight any U.S. ground invasion, although Trump did not mention sending troops to the country.

Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who Trump has suggested has been a possible negotiating partner with the U.S. government, asserted on X that “right now, in less than a week, a powerful national campaign sweeping the country has brought forward around 7 million Iranians who have already stepped up and declared they’re ready to pick up arms.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.