Washington, United States. The top U.S. commander for the Middle East said the U.S. assault on Iran was ahead of schedule as Israel and the United States targeted sites inside Iran and Iran carried out strikes around the Gulf.
Strikes and air raid warnings
The Israeli military said early on Wednesday it had begun a wave of strikes targeting Iranian launch sites, aerial defence systems and infrastructure.
In Israel, air raid sirens sounded early on Wednesday warning of Iranian missiles, and witnesses reported loud blasts as missiles were intercepted that shook buildings.
U.S. assessment of operations
U.S. Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads U.S. forces in the Middle East as the head of Central Command, said the first 24 hours of the “Operation Epic Fury” bombardment of Iran were “nearly double the scale” of the first 24 hours of the “Shock and Awe” campaign that opened the Iraq War in 2003.
“We are seeing that Iran’s ability to hit us, and our partners, is declining, while our combat power, on the other hand, is building,” Cooper said in a video briefing released on Tuesday evening. “My overall operational assessment is that we are ahead of our game plan.”
Cooper said Iran’s air defences had been badly degraded, its navy had no operational vessels on key waterways after 17 were sunk, and that more than 2,000 Iranian targets had been hit.
He said some 50,000 U.S. troops were taking part in operations and that “more capabilities” were on the way.
Casualties and market disruptions
The U.S. military on Tuesday identified four of the first American soldiers killed in the war, as the Trump administration warned the intensifying conflict would lead to more U.S. casualties. Trump has not ruled out using ground forces.
The five-day-old war continued to rattle global markets, as airline and tourism industries scrambled to deal with more than 20,000 flight cancellations and governments rushed to bring stranded travellers home from the Middle East.
Israel’s campaign timeline
A source familiar with Israel’s war plan told Reuters that the campaign had been planned to last two weeks and was going through its target list faster than expected, with early success in killing Iran’s leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening salvos on Saturday.
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