Donald Trump sharpened his personal attacks on Iranian leadership on Friday, using social media to mock what he described as cowardly leaders hiding underground while calling them “deranged scumbags” and vowing even more devastating strikes to come. His comments mirrored the assessment of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who told reporters that Iran’s leaders were “desperate and hiding” and that new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei had been wounded and disfigured. The parallel public and military pressure campaigns appeared to be a deliberate strategy from Washington.
Mojtaba Khamenei had assumed the role of supreme leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli strike that triggered the current war. His only public communication since then was a written statement on Thursday in which he pledged to continue fighting and called for national unity. Hegseth dismissively noted that the statement came with no voice and no video, and suggested that Khamenei’s calls for unity rang hollow given the tens of thousands of protesters the regime had killed.
On the military front, the US and Israel continued to intensify their campaign. Israel confirmed over 200 strikes in 24 hours, while the combined total of enemy targets struck by both nations has surpassed 15,000 since the war began. Trump late Friday announced that Kharg Island had been completely cleared of its military infrastructure in one of the most powerful bombing raids in Middle Eastern history. The island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, remains partially spared as Trump left the oil infrastructure intact as a conditional bargaining chip.
The conflict has spread its destruction across the Middle East. In Lebanon, over 600 people have been killed and 800,000 displaced, with fresh strikes killing at least eight in Sidon on Friday. Hezbollah launched rockets at northern Israel, injuring close to 60. Saudi Arabia intercepted nearly 50 Iranian drones. Qatar ordered evacuations in parts of Doha before explosions were heard and a missile interception confirmed. Two people died in Oman, and a building in the Dubai financial district was damaged by intercepted missile debris.
American losses mounted during the day, with six service members killed in a tanker aircraft crash over Iraq. France also reported the death of a soldier in Iraq from a drone strike by a pro-Iranian militia. Trump’s response was to vow harder strikes, more obliteration, and immediate consequences for any interference with the Strait of Hormuz. European governments, including France, were quietly seeking to negotiate their way out of the crisis through diplomatic channels with Tehran, seeking at minimum guaranteed safe passage for their commercial shipping.