<\/p>\n
The head of the U.S. military’s Central Command says Iran is “operating in a sign of desperation” by targeting civilian sites in the war.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Farsi-language Iranian opposition satellite network Iran International that aired early Monday, U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper said: “They’re operating in a sign of desperation. … In the last couple of weeks, they’ve attacked civilian targets very deliberately, more than 300 times.”<\/p>\n
Cooper noted a slowdown in Iranian incoming fire across the Mideast as the war entered its fourth week.<\/p>\n
“At the beginning of the conflict, you saw large volumes, in the dozens of drones and missiles,” Cooper said. “You no longer see that. It’s all one or two at a time.”<\/p>\n
Cooper said the U.S. campaign against Iran was continuing “ahead or on plan,” targeting missile and drone manufacturing sites as well other military infrastructure.<\/p>\n
“So it’s not just about the threat today. We’re eliminating the threat of the future, both in terms of the drones, the missiles, as well as the navy,” he told Iran International.<\/p>\n
Cooper said it wasn’t yet time for the Iranian public to come to the streets, citing the ongoing risks from the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes.<\/p>\n
“They’re launching missiles and drones from populated areas and you need to stay inside for right now,” Cooper said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both the Israeli and U.S. governments have voiced hope that the Iranian public will rise up and topple the country’s nearly-half-century-old ruling Islamic theocracy, and Cooper said “there will be a clear signal at some point, as the president has indicated, for you to be able to come out.”<\/p>\n
CBS\/AP<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Iran defies Trump’s threat to expand war if Strait of Hormuz not reopened The head of the U.S. military’s Central Command says Iran is “operating in a sign…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[229,4459,1613,318,4460,1612,3575,823,415],"class_list":["post-4500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-defies","tag-expand","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-reopened","tag-strait","tag-threat","tag-trumps","tag-war"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage.jpg",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage-768x403.jpg",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage-1024x538.jpg",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage.jpg",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage.jpg",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage-1024x538.jpg",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/israel-tel-aviv-iran-missile-damage-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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#Iran #defies #Trumps #threat #expand #war #Strait #Hormuz #reopened<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"