Iranian regime losing air capability day by day, CENTCOM says

Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States has largely neutralized Iran’s military capabilities and warned Washington could devastate key infrastructure if it chose to escalate further.

“They are pretty much at the end of the line,” he said. “They’ve got no navy, they’ve got no air force, they’ve got no anti-aircraft… We’re just riding free range over that country.”

Trump said the US was also closely watching the strategic Strait of Hormuz, adding that Iranian naval forces in the area had been largely destroyed.

“The straits are in great shape. We’ve knocked out all of their boats,” he said, while noting that Iran still possessed some missiles.

Trump also warned the United States could strike critical infrastructure, including power systems, if it decided to intensify the campaign.

“We could take apart their electric capacity within one hour, and it would take them 25 years to rebuild it,” he said, adding that Washington would ideally avoid such strikes.

He said the main objective was ensuring Iran could not rebuild its military capacity. “The main thing is we have to win this… We don’t want to let it regrow,” Trump said.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States had already “won” the war with Iran but vowed Washington would remain in the fight to finish the job, according to Reuters.

Speaking at a campaign-style rally in Hebron, Kentucky, Trump said the outcome had been decided almost immediately after fighting began.

“You never like to say too early you won. We won,” he said. “In the first hour it was over.” “We don’t want to leave early, do we?” he said. “We got to finish the job.”

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) agreed on Wednesday to examine the option of escorting commercial ships to ensure freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf, according to a statement from the G7 presidency reported by Reuters.

The statement followed a call convened by Emmanuel Macron, president of France, with leaders of the G7 nations — the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, United Kingdom and Germany — to discuss the US-Israeli war on Iran and its impact on rising energy prices.

A working group has been set up to explore escorting ships “when the right security conditions are in place,” the statement said. "The effort would also involve consultations with shipping companies, transport firms and insurers."

The European Union warned that its inflation rate could surpass 3% this year if the war in the Middle East keeps Brent oil prices around $100 per barrel and gas prices elevated for a prolonged period, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

In that scenario, economic growth in 2026 could be up to 0.4 percentage points lower than the 1.4% pace forecast late last year, EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis told the bloc’s finance ministers this week, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

In a letter signed by 46 senators, the lawmakers called the results of the Feb. 28 strike “horrific,” noting that most of those killed were girls between the ages of 7 and 12.

The senators also asked for a broader review of any US military actions that may have caused civilian harm during the opening phase of the conflict.

Reuters reported Wednesday that two people familiar with the matter said the strike—one of the deadliest incidents involving civilians in decades of US conflicts—may have resulted from the use of outdated intelligence in the targeting process.

The news agency had earlier reported that an internal US military review found American forces were likely responsible for the attack on the school in the southern city of Minab.

Video circulated online that experts say appears to show a US Tomahawk missile striking the area, though the exact sequence of events remains unclear.

The Pentagon has declined to comment on the specifics of the case, saying only that the incident remains under investigation.

According to archived copies of the school’s website reviewed by Reuters, the campus was located next to a compound operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, has said the strike killed 150 students, a figure that has not been independently verified.

The senators asked the Defense Department to clarify whether US forces carried out the strike, what steps had been taken to mitigate civilian harm and what role artificial intelligence tools may have played in the targeting process.

The letter was signed by every member of the Senate Democratic caucus except Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.