US President Donald Trump claimed that the United States has "won" the war against Iran but says his forces will continue to attack until the job is finished, while Tehran vowed to strike ships in the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
"You never like to say too early you won. We won," Trump said during a campaign-style rally in Kentucky on March 11.
"In the first hour it was over," he said.
Comments from Trump and the White House over recent days have varied, from speculating that the war could last four to six weeks or longer to the possibility that it could be over "soon."
Trump has said the US-Israeli attack on Iran, begun on February 28, had "virtually destroyed" the Middle East nation, wiping out much of its leadership, armed forces, and nuclear program.
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Still, the president and others in his administration have indicated that there will be no letup in attacks.
"We don't want to leave early, do we?" Trump said. "We got to finish the job."
Israel has also made clear it is not ready to end its campaign, including attacks in Lebanon on Iran-allied Hezbollah forces, saying a "a broad bank of targets" remains.
"We will expand our operations," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told a televised briefing on March 11.
In the early morning hours of March 12, the Israeli military announced a "wide-scale wave of strikes on Tehran -- an almost nightly event in recent days.
Iranian Navy Ships Struck
Trump said US forces had struck Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz amid fears of a sea-mining campaign by Tehran in one of the most economically important waterways in the world.
"We hit 28 mine ships as of this moment," Trump told reporters, a day after the US military said 16 mine-laying vessels had been destroyed.
Reuters and CNN, citing US sources, said Iran has deployed about a dozen mines in the strait. Reuters quoted a source as saying the mines were deployed "in the last few days" and that most of their locations were known.
