Pentagon to send additional warship with Marines to Middle East as Iran conflict intensifies

The Pentagon is sending an additional warship with Marines on board to the Middle East, a U.S. official said on Friday, as U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran continued for a second week.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the deployment comes as the Pentagon had previously announced that additional troops would head to the region.

The announcement followed a briefing in Washington by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who outlined ongoing U.S. military operations targeting Iran’s missile, drone and naval capabilities.

Hegseth said Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded and “likely disfigured” following Israeli strikes at the start of the war. He questioned Khamenei’s ability to govern.

“We know the new so-called not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” Hegseth told reporters. “He put out a statement yesterday. A weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement.”

No images of Khamenei have been released since an Israeli strike early in the conflict that killed much of his family, including his father and wife.

Khamenei’s first public comments since the strike were delivered in a written statement read by a television presenter on Thursday. In the statement, he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and called on neighboring countries to shut U.S. bases on their territory or risk being targeted by Iran.

An Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Khamenei was lightly injured and continuing to operate. Iranian state television had described him as “war-wounded.”

Escalating strikes and rhetoric

Hegseth said the United States would intensify its campaign.

“We will keep pressing, keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemy,” he said.

The phrase “no quarter” refers to refusing to spare the life of an opponent who seeks to surrender, a practice prohibited under international humanitarian law.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says international law forbids ordering that there be no survivors or conducting hostilities on that basis.

Hegseth has also moved to reshape the top ranks of the U.S. military justice system, replacing the judge advocates general for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

According to U.S. officials, American forces have carried out strikes against more than 6,000 targets in Iran over the past 14 days.

Nearly two weeks of U.S.-Israeli bombings have killed around 2,000 people in Iran, according to figures cited during the briefing.

Regional impact and U.S. casualties

Despite the U.S. attacks, Iranian drones were reported flying into Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.

Separately, six U.S. service members were killed Friday when a U.S. military refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq. The United States said the crash involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.

Since the United States and Israel began strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, 11 U.S. troops have been killed.

The additional warship deployment underscores Washington’s expanding military posture in the Middle East as the conflict shows no sign of easing.