- US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the new Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “wounded and likely disfigured.”
- Khamenei was injured at the start of the war but it has been unclear how badly. On Thursday, Iranian state TV read out a statement it claimed was from him but he hasn’t been seen in public since he was selected to replace his father, who was killed in US-Israeli air strikes at the beginning of the war.
- “Iran's leadership is in no better shape, desperate and hiding. They've gone underground,” Hegseth said at a Friday news briefing.
- He continued: “There was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement he called for unity. Apparently killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of community. Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father dead, he's scared. He's injured.”
- At the briefing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine also addressed the deaths of four US service members who died in a military plane crash in Iraq, stating, “Please keep these brave Airmen, their families, friends and units, in your thoughts.”
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