Senior United States officials said that Washington’s military campaign against Iran was going on with full force to crush the government in Tehran “without mercy”.

They said the military campaign against Iran was achieving its objectives, while signalling that operations would intensify as American and Israeli forces expand their strikes across the country, causing hundreds of civilian deaths.

Speaking to reporters, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said American forces had loosened their rules of engagement and were operating with fewer restrictions as the campaign continues.

“Iranian leaders [are] looking up and seeing only US and Israeli air power every minute of every day, until we decide it’s over, and Iran will be able to do nothing about it,” Hegseth said.

He added that US aircraft were “controlling the skies, picking targets” and bringing “death and destruction from the sky, all day long”.

“This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight,” he said.

“We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”

Iran strongly condemned the remarks.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Hegseth’s comments amounted to an admission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Only a NAZI mentality can unleash, in cold blood, death and destruction on another nation just to ‘satisfy the desires’ of his boss,” Baghaei wrote on the social media platform X.

Later on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the defence chief’s description of the campaign, saying US forces were moving toward “dominance over the skies”.

“In the next few hours, we’ll be achieving that dominance over the skies, which means the United States military will be raining missiles and weapons down on Iran to hit these specific targets that have been identified as crucial to take out by the Department of War,” she said.

Iranian officials have accused the United States and Israel of repeatedly striking civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, during the campaign.

Baghaei listed a series of incidents he said involved attacks on residential buildings, street markets and medical centres across Iran.

One of the deadliest incidents occurred in the early hours of February 28, when a strike hit a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab, killing 165 people.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Pentagon released a map showing US strikes during the first 100 hours of the offensive, which appeared to indicate two attacks in or near Minab.

The United States and Israel have killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several senior officials during the campaign, while also targeting Iranian ships and military facilities.

Despite thousands of US and Israeli strikes, Iran’s ruling structure remains intact, with no visible internal challenge emerging against the Islamic Republic system.

Amid the escalating regional war, US President Donald Trump praised the military campaign.

“And we’re doing very well on the warfront – to put it mildly, I would say,” Trump said on Wednesday.

“Somebody said: ‘On a scale of 10, where would you rate it?’ I said about 15.”