The U.S. Central Command is warning Iranians serving in the Revolutionary Guard’s navy to abandon their positions following the Israeli strike that killed the Islamic Republic’s naval commander.
“U.S. military strikes on the IRGC-N will continue. Therefore, we call on every Iranian serving in the IRGC-N to immediately abandon their post and return home to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death,” Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, said in a statement.
Cooper said the region is now “safer” due to the fatal strike, which took out the Guard’s Adm. Alireza Tangsiri, a U.S. Treasury Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The Iranian naval commander was the architect behind the Islamic Republic’s strategy to put a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and was reportedly killed in a hideout near the oil shipping waterway.
“Tangsiri commanded the IRGC-N for eight years, during which time the IRGC harassed thousands of innocent merchant mariners, attacked hundreds of vessels with one way attack drones and missiles, and killed countless innocent civilians,” Cooper said in the statement.
The United States and Israel have taken out 92% of the Iranian navy’s large ships since the start of Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion on Feb. 28, according to CENTCOM. Cooper described the Guard’s navy as “on an irreversible decline.”
The news of Tangsiri’s ouster comes days after Cooper’s latest update on the war, in which he announced CENTCOM took out Iranian facilities surrounding the Strait of Hormuz that were used for intelligence support and to house radars used to track ships transiting the waterway.
“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result, and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” Cooper said on Saturday.
At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, both President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed the U.S. military’s success in hitting Iran’s navy.
“Their navy is sunk in the largest elimination of a foreign Navy that has taken place, maybe ever, but certainly since World War II,” Trump said.
TRUMP SAYS IRAN LET EIGHT OIL TANKERS THROUGH STRAIT OF HORMUZ
Trump noted that the U.S.-Israeli military operation has taken out 154 Iranian ships so far, saying the Guard’s naval warships are “resting very nicely at the bottom of the sea.”
“Not only do they not have a navy, Mr. President, they no longer have a navy commander,” Hegseth said, referring to the fatal strike on Tangsiri. “So, no navy, no navy leader.”
