Pentagon chief warns Iran: 'We've barely started fighting' as US-Israel escalate campaign

By the sixth day of fighting, the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran had entered what Israeli military officials were calling a second phase. The Pentagon's chief, Pete Hegseth, visited Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, and delivered a message meant to reverberate through Tehran: the Americans had barely begun. "If they think they've seen something, just wait," he said. The U.S. possessed defensive and offensive weapons reserves sufficient to sustain the campaign indefinitely, he insisted. When combined with Israeli capabilities, the sheer volume of combat power still flowing toward Iran would be several times greater than what had already been unleashed.

The first phase had been swift and devastating. Israeli warplanes destroyed six Iranian missile launchers in the hours before they could be fired toward Israeli territory. Three advanced Iranian air defense systems were eliminated. The Iranian Navy's frigate, the Dena, was struck by a U.S. submarine in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka, killing dozens of sailors. The death toll in Iran itself had reached at least 1,230 people, according to Iranian government figures. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening strikes on Saturday. The scale of destruction was such that Sri Lankan authorities, who recovered 208 crew members from the stricken Iranian vessel, had to improvise morgues in refrigerated shipping containers when their hospital's capacity was overwhelmed.

But the war was no longer confined to Iran. Israel had turned its attention to Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah had fired the first shots in support of Tehran. Over four days of bombardment, Israeli aircraft struck command centers and weapons storage facilities in Beirut's southern suburbs, the Dahiyeh district, a Hezbollah stronghold. The Lebanese government reported 77 dead and more than 500 wounded from these strikes, though hospitals warned the numbers would climb as more casualties arrived. Israel ordered the evacuation of four densely populated neighborhoods—Bourj el Barajne, Hadath, Haret Hreik, and Chiyah—giving residents hours to flee. Israeli military spokesman Avichai Adraee directed some residents eastward toward Mount Lebanon, others northward. The order was unprecedented in its scale and urgency.

Iran responded with waves of missiles and drones. The Revolutionary Guards claimed to have struck the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln with unmanned aircraft. They fired heavy missiles at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. They launched attacks on bases in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait. Sirens wailed across Israel's central cities. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a third of the world's seaborne oil passes, became a flashpoint. Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that merchant vessels transiting the waterway "could be attacked or sunk," though Tehran denied it had actually closed the strait. The International Maritime Organization reported that roughly 20,000 sailors and 15,000 passengers were now trapped in the Gulf, unable to move.

The economic tremors were immediate. Oil prices spiked to their highest levels in nearly two years. The West Texas Intermediate barrel jumped 8.51 percent in a single day, reaching $81. Stock markets in Asia swayed with volatility. The International Monetary Fund's managing director warned that if the conflict prolonged, global energy prices, market confidence, growth, and inflation would all suffer. European nations mobilized. Italy announced it would send air defense systems to Gulf countries. Britain dispatched additional fighter jets to Qatar. France authorized American aircraft to operate from its bases in the Middle East. Spain sent a frigate to Cyprus, though its defense minister insisted this was not an act of war but rather protection of civilians and values.

Behind the scenes, according to reporting from The New York Times, Iranian intelligence agents had made indirect contact with the CIA just a day after the strikes began, offering to discuss terms for ending the conflict. In public, however, Iran's surviving leaders spoke only of defiance. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that Iran was prepared for any scenario, including a ground invasion. "We are waiting for them," he said. Trump dismissed the prospect as a waste of time. "They've lost everything," the American president said. "They've lost their navy. They've lost everything they can lose." He added that he expected to have a role in selecting Iran's next supreme leader, comparing his anticipated influence to his involvement in Venezuelan politics.

The human dimension of the conflict extended far beyond the battlefield. In Iran itself, where at least 30,000 people had been killed in government crackdowns during protests just weeks earlier, some citizens saw the American and Israeli strikes as a potential opening. With internet access reduced to one percent and communications severely restricted, Iranians inside the country reached out to exiles and diaspora communities to share their experiences. Some expressed a grim sense of relief that someone might finally eliminate the regime that had tortured and repressed them. In Lebanon, families fled their homes with whatever they could carry. In Sri Lanka, hospital workers labored through the night to preserve the bodies of Iranian sailors. The war had no single front. It rippled across the region, touching shipping lanes, oil markets, and the lives of millions who had nothing to do with the decisions that set it in motion.