US military kills Iranian official behind Trump's assassination plot - Pentagon

The announcement of the unnamed ‌Iranian official's killing came during an operational update to the four-day-old war with Iran at the Pentagon.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth touted the killing, which he said took place on Tuesday, even as he stressed ​the Iranian official was not the initial focus of the war.

"The leader of ​the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down ⁠and killed. Iran tried to kill President Trump and President Trump got the last laugh," ​Hegseth told reporters.

In 2024, the U.S. Justice Department charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged ​plot ordered by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps to assassinate Trump, then U.S. president-elect.

Tehran has denied accusations that it had targeted Trump and other U.S. officials.

Trump cited the alleged Iranian plot when he spoke on Sunday about a joint ​U.S.-Israeli operation that killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying to ABC News: "I ​got him before he got me."

Hegseth, however, said Trump never mentioned the effort to track down the leader ‌of ⁠the Iranian unit behind the plot as a priority for the Pentagon.

"While that was not the focus of the effort by any stretch of the imagination - in fact, never raised by the President or anybody else - I ensured, and others ensured, that those who were ​responsible for that were ​eventually part of the ⁠target list," Hegseth told reporters.

General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. military was making steady progress ​against Iran after blistering rounds of strikes. He said Iran's launches ​of theater-wide ballistic ⁠missiles were down 86% from the first day of fighting and their one-way attack drone shots were down 73% from the opening days.

He said U.S. strikes were expanding as the U.S. establishes localized air superiority ⁠across the ​southern Iranian coast.

"We will now begin to expand inland, ​striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory, and creating additional freedom of maneuver for U.S. forces," Caine said.