US President Donald Trump has outlined his administration's four goals in Iran and warned "the big wave" of strikes is still to come.
Speaking at his first White House appearance since the joint US-Israeli attack began, Mr Trump said he had seized "our last, best chance" to strike Iran's "sick and sinister regime".
He laid out four objectives, later clarified further by the White House.
They are:
- Destroying the regime's ballistic missile stocks and its capacity to produce new ones. "You see that happening on an hourly basis," Mr Trump said.
- "Annihilating" the Iranian navy. Ten ships had already been "knocked out" and were "at the bottom of the sea", he said.
- Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
- Stopping Iran from arming, funding and directing proxy militant groups.
Mr Trump delivered the remarks amid growing criticism from Democrats and others over confused messaging about the US's ultimate end game.
He spoke at a military medal ceremony where he did not take questions. He at times veered off topic, speaking about the curtains behind him and the new White House ballroom he is building.
He did not mention regime change when outlining America's goals, and he did not repeat previous calls for Iran's citizens to overthrow the government.
But in a phone interview with CNN, he said "yes" when asked if the US was doing more, beyond the military assault, to help the Iranian people regain control of their country.
"We are indeed," he said.
"But right now, we want everyone staying inside. It's not safe out there."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier the US was not engaged in a "democracy-building exercise".
"This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change," Mr Hegseth said.
'The big wave'
While he has not done a press conference since the attack on Iran began, Mr Trump has continued to give ad hoc phone interviews to US media outlets.
He told CNN the strikes were "knocking the crap" out of Iran, but: "We haven't even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn't even happened. The big one is coming soon."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a similar prediction.
"The hardest hits are yet to come," he told media at the Capitol.
"The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now."
Iran's Red Crescent said 555 people had been killed in the country, Iranian state media reported.
The US has confirmed the deaths of six service members.
Three US fighter jets were also shot down, the military said, after coming under fire by mistake from Kuwaiti air defences.
"All six aircrew ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition," US Central Command said.
Kuwait said two of its navy soldiers were killed while "carrying out duties" on Monday, local time, but did not provide detail.
Widening war
Kuwait is among Gulf states that have been targeted by Iranian drones and missiles in a war that continues to widen.
A new front opened on Monday when the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, one of Tehran's principal allies in the Middle East, launched missiles and drones towards Israel.
Israel responded with sweeping air strikes, which it said targeted the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut and struck senior militants.
Lebanese state news agency NNA said at least 31 people had been killed and 149 injured.
Israel declared Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem a "target for elimination".
Officials said they were not, for now, considering a ground invasion of Lebanon, whose government on Monday banned military activities by Hezbollah.
As Washington's allies in the Gulf came under renewed attack from Iranian counterstrikes, black smoke rose above the area around the US embassy in Kuwait.
There were loud blasts in Dubai and Samha in the United Arab Emirates, and in the Qatari capital Doha.
In his CNN interview, Mr Trump suggested the US's partners and allies in the region now "want to fight".
"We were surprised," Mr Trump said.
"We told them: 'We've got this,' and now they want to fight. And they're aggressively fighting.
"They were going to be very little involved and now they insist on being involved."
In a separate interview with the New York Post, Mr Trump said he would not rule out sending in US ground troops "if they were necessary".
"I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground," he said.
"Like every president says, 'there will be no boots on the ground', I don't say it.
"I say: 'probably don't need them' [or] 'if they were necessary'."
Israel's plans meant we had to act: Rubio
The Trump administration has been under pressure to explain the legal case for attacking Iran, especially without authorisation from the UN Security Council or US Congress.
Mr Rubio said the US had no choice but to respond to an "imminent threat".
Speaking before a briefing with members of Congress, he argued Israel was planning to attack Iran, which would have prompted counterstrikes on US interests.
He told the media at the US Capitol:
"We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.
"We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces.
"And we knew that if we didn't pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties."
Mr Rubio said the war would continue for "as long as it takes" to achieve America's objectives.
In his White House remarks, Mr Trump again said the US had expected to carry out a mission lasting four to five weeks.
"We have capability to go far longer than that," he said, but the operation was "substantially ahead of our time projections".
General Dan Caine, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said America's objectives "will take some time to achieve and, in some cases, will be difficult and gritty work".
"We expect to take additional losses and, as always, we will work to minimise US losses."
Mr Hegseth said speculation about the possibility of an "endless war" should stop.
"This is not Iraq. This is not endless," he said.
"I was there for both. Our generation knows better, and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb, and he's right."
In a combative press conference, he criticised "our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force".
ABC/Reuters
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