Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said the US-led campaign against Iran is making “steady progress,” four days after the launch of Operation Epic Fury.
Speaking at a Pentagon briefing, Caine said the operation is aimed at dismantling Iran’s ability to project military power beyond its borders.
US honors fallen service members
Caine began by naming four US service members killed during the conflict: Captain Cody Cork, Sergeant First Class Noah Tejans, Sergeant First Class Nicole Amor and Sergeant Declan Cody, all from the 103rd Sustainment Command of the US Army Reserve in Des Moines, Iowa.
Two additional names are being withheld pending notification of their families.
“To the families of our fallen, we grieve with you today,” Caine said.
Iran missile and drone launches sharply reduced
Caine said Iranian missile and drone launches had fallen sharply since the start of the conflict.
“Iran’s theater ballistic missile shots fired are down 86% from the first day of fighting, with a 23% decrease just in the last 24 hours,” he said.
He added that Iran’s one-way attack drone launches have dropped by 73% from the opening days of the campaign.
US gaining air superiority
According to Caine, US Central Command has established localized air superiority along Iran’s southern coast and is now expanding operations deeper into Iranian territory.
“We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory,” he said.
The campaign is shifting from long-range stand-off weapons to “stand-in precision strikes” using munitions such as GPS-guided JDAM bombs and Hellfire missiles.
More than 2,000 targets struck
Caine said US forces had struck more than 2,000 targets so far during the campaign.
He said more than 20 Iranian naval vessels had been destroyed, including a submarine, significantly degrading Iran’s naval presence in the region.
US submarine sinks Iranian warship
Caine confirmed that a US Navy submarine sank an Iranian warship with a Mark 48 torpedo.
He described it as the first time since World War Two that a US submarine had sunk an enemy combatant ship using a torpedo.
“This is an incredible demonstration of America’s global reach to hunt, find and kill,” he said.
Regional allies intercept Iranian attacks
Caine said several US partners in the region had intercepted Iranian missiles and drones.
Jordan shot down drones headed for Amman, Bahrain intercepted a drone targeting maritime infrastructure, Saudi Patriot batteries stopped ballistic missiles aimed at energy facilities, and the UAE neutralized drones targeting Abu Dhabi.
Qatar, he added, shot down two Iranian bombers approaching its territory.
Caine said US forces would continue strikes over the next 24 to 48 hours while assessing damage and targeting missile launchers and drone capabilities.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.