President Trump said Wednesday that he does not know about the preliminary military investigation that determined the U.S. military is responsible for the missile strike that hit the Iranian elementary school.
“I don’t know about it,” Mr. Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.
The preliminary investigation found that the Feb. 28 strike on the elementary school was a targeting mistake. The strike killed at least 175 people, mostly children.
The president previously said Iran could have conducted the strike on the school.
Mr. Trump has maintained that the war in Iran has been successful.
He told reporters that Iran “has lost their Navy. They’ve lost their Air Force. They have no anti-aircraft apparatus at all. They have no radar. Their leaders are gone and we can do a lot worse.”
Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Trump told Axios that the war will end “soon” and there is “practically nothing left” to target.
“Little this and that. … Any time I want it to end, it will end,” he said.
“The war is going great. We are way ahead of the timetable. We have done more damage than we thought possible, even in the original six-week period,” he said.
The U.S. is expected to intensify the missile and bomb attacks on Iran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday was going to be the “most intense day of strikes” since they were first launched late last month.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that roughly 140 service members have been wounded since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury. Six service members have been killed.
And U.S. Central Command head Adm. Brad Cooper said that more than 5,500 targets have been struck inside Iran, including more than 60 ships, in a video posted on social media Wednesday.
He said there were strike waves every hour on Tuesday.
“U.S. forces continue delivering devastating combat power against the Iranian regime,” Adm. Cooper said. “U.S. combat power is building, Iranian combat power is declining, and we remain centered on very clear military objectives in eliminating Iran’s ability to project power against Americans and against its neighbors.”
The war is on the 11th day.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the war will continue “without any time limit, for as long as necessary, until we achieve all the objectives and decisively win the campaign.”
Mr. Trump has been saying since Monday that the war will be over soon, but not this week. He hasn’t given a specific timeline for when it will be over.
