Washington DC [US], March 11 : White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday (local time) said that the United States has not ruled out the option of sending troops on ground in Iran and that the military operations in the Persian Gulf nation would end once the objectives of Epic Fury are achieved.
She made the remarks while taking questions from the press during the media briefing.
When asked about the concern raised by Democrat Senator Blumenthal about a possibility of boots on the ground, Leavitt told media, "As for boots on the ground, the President has talked about this repeatedly; wisely, he does not rule options out as Commander-in-Chief. So again, I would hesitate to confirm anything that a Democrat on Capitol Hill says right now about the President's thinking."
The Hill reported earlier that Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal left a Senate Armed Service Committee briefing on the Iran war on Tuesday, telling the reporters that he believes the Trump administration is on a path to putting American troops on the ground in Iran.
He said as per the Hill, "We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives".
When asked about the end to the US military operations in Iran, Leavitt told media that they would come to halt once the objectives of Operation Epic Fury are met.
"When those objectives are met, the President will dictate the end of these operations when he deems that Iran no longer poses a credible threat to the United States of America," she said.
She added, "For the timeline of the military operation with respect to Iran, we have objectives that we have laid out that the Commander-in-Chief wants to see achieved. When they are achieved, then it will ultimately be up to the President to end these operations."
Sharing the operational updates of the US military action in Iran and calling them "tremendous strides", the White House Press Secretary said that B-2 bombers had been used to drop several 2000-pound penetrator bombs on missile sites in the country.
She said, "The United States military is making tremendous strides towards achieving our military objectives for Operation Epic Fury. More than 5,000 enemy targets have been struck so far. Iran's ballistic missile attacks are down more than 90 per cent, and their drone attacks are down by approximately 85 per cent since the start of Operation Epic Fury. The United States is also annihilating the Iranian regime's navy, and we have destroyed more than 50 Iranian naval vessels, including a major drone carrier ship. None of the regime's vessels are operating in major regional waterways, and the Iranian navy has been assessed as combat-ineffective."
Leavitt added, "The U.S. military is moving to dismantle Iran's missile production infrastructure. Our incredible B-2 bombers recently dropped dozens of 2,000-pound penetrator bombs on deeply buried missile sites"
The remarks come amid an escalating security situation in West Asia, which has resulted in the conflict being now expanded beyond Iran, with Iranian retaliatory strikes--using missiles and drones--targeting U.S. military bases, embassies, and civilian/energy infrastructure in neighbouring Gulf nations, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.
The conflict has caused significant disruptions to global energy supplies, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz, where approximately 20% of the world's oil transits.