US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday claimed that the new Iranian Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, had been injured during the ongoing conflict while President Donald Trump said the Iranian regime and its military had been decimated. In another development, two Indian nationals were killed and 10 others injured in an attack in Oman’s Sohar early on Friday.At press conference in Washington DC, Hegseth said, “We know the new so-called, not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured.”The US Secretary of War also threatened to carry out the largest wave of strikes against Iran since the conflict began. “Today will be the highest volume of US strikes on Iran yet,” he said, adding that Russia and China were not a “factor” in the Iran war.Hegseth emphasised that the US was executing a precise plan to defeat, destroy and disable Iran’s operational military assets at an unprecedented pace. Earlier in the day, Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social and described how he was enjoying “killing” the Iranian regime. “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the US, am killing them. What a great honour it is to do so,” Trump said.“Iran’s navy is gone, their air force is no more; missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth,” Trump said. The US has unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time.Meanwhile, a US military plane crashed today. The US Central Command said a KC-135 refuelling aircraft went down in western Iraq. All six crew members on board the aircraft have died. “The loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” the Central Command said. Two aircraft were involved in the incident. The second one landed safely. The planes were part of Operation Epic Fury.The Indian Air Force had, in October last year, leased the same plane — KC 135 — from a private entity in the US.Earlier on March 2, three US F-15 fighter jets had been lost to a friendly fire by Kuwaiti air defence. All pilots ejected safely, the US Central Command had said while acknowledging the loss of the three jets.On the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, Hegseth said Iran was “exercising sheer desperation” by blocking a significant portion of the world’s oil. “We have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it,” he said.Meanwhile, Iran said it was flying out its sailors stranded in Kochi while its warship IRIS Lavan, that docked at the southern port city for maintenance, remained there.Sources confirmed to The Tribune that 183 Iranian sailors were on board warship IRIS Lavan that docked at Kochi on March 4 for maintenance. Almost all of them, expect a few, were flying out.The same day — March 4 — IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a US submarine 38 km west off the coast of Sri Lanka. The third Iranian ship — IRIS Bushehr — had sought help from Sri Lankans and was given shelter at Trincomalee — a port on the north-eastern side of the island country.Also, Sri Lanka is repatriating the bodies of the 84 Iranian sailors, who had died on board IRIS Dena.