Hegseth says Mojtaba Khamenei 'disfigured,' vows to up strikes 20%

Speaking at a press conference Friday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei — who was tapped to replace his slain father — was “wounded” in US-Israeli strikes and is “likely disfigured.”

Hegseth added that Iran’s leadership is likely “underground, cowering.” The New York Times reported that Mojtaba was injured during the first days of the war.

On Thursday, an Iranian state TV anchor read the first statement from the new leader, who has not appeared in public since the war began.

The US continues to incur losses. CENTCOM said Friday that four US military personnel were killed when a refueling aircraft went down in Iraq following a collision, bringing the total US military death toll in the conflict to 11.

Hegseth said that the US would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though he gave no further details as the closure of the crucial waterway has global markets in a tailspin. Brent crude dropped slightly to $99 a barrel after the Trump administration announced late on Thursday a 30-day waiver for countries to purchase sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products stranded at sea.

Meanwhile, Iranian strikes on Gulf and regional states continue. The Turkish Defense Ministry said on Friday that NATO air defenses stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea intercepted a third ballistic missile fired from Iran into Turkish airspace.

Israel continued to expand its airstrikes across Lebanon on Friday, targeting multiple areas outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds, including a bridge over the Litani River in the first Israeli attack on Lebanese civilian infrastructure since Hezbollah entered the war.

At least 687 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2, and more than 800,000 have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.