US intelligence has assessed that around half of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers are still intact despite over a month of US and Israeli bombardment across the country, CNN reported early Friday, citing three sources familiar with the intelligence.
Some of the remaining missile launchers are not believed to be accessible at present, due to having been buried under rubble amid the waves of airstrikes, the report said.
Israel said in March that it had destroyed or disabled around 60 percent of Iran’s estimated 470 ballistic missile launchers. However, the discrepancy between the two estimates could be put down to differences in how Israel and the US classify launchers that are intact but inaccessible, the report indicated.
By Israel’s assessment, around 200 launchers were destroyed in strikes, while another 80 are not considered to be operational after the IAF struck tunnel entrances to subterranean facilities where they are stored.
Separately, US intelligence assessments have also indicated that Iran still has thousands of attack drones stockpiled and ready for use, the report said.
The Islamic Republic also remains in possession of “a large percentage” of its coastal defense cruise missiles, which play a key role in Iran’s threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Additionally, sources said that while Iran’s navy has largely been taken out, the naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) still have about half of their capabilities intact, including “hundreds, if not thousands, of small boats and unmanned surface vessels.”
The IRGC is largely responsible for the harassment of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
One source cited by CNN warned that Iran is “still very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region.”
As for achieving the war’s objectives, the sources said: “We can keep f**king them up, I don’t doubt it, but you’re out of your mind if you think this will be done in two weeks.”
The White House responded to a request for comment on the report by telling CNN that “anonymous sources desperately want to attack President [Donald] Trump and demean the incredible work” of the US military.
“Here are the facts: Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks are down around 90%, their navy is wiped out, two-thirds of their production facilities are damaged or destroyed, and the United States and Israel have overwhelming air dominance over Iran,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the article was “completely wrong.” He said the US was “far ahead of schedule on accomplishing our military objectives,” including to “destroy Iran’s missile arsenal.”
Since the start of the war, Iran has launched more than 500 ballistic missiles at Israel, with the Israel Defense Forces reporting an interception rate of 92% of attacks heading for populated areas and key infrastructure.
In all, 12 missiles carrying conventional warheads with hundreds of kilograms of explosives have struck populated areas in Israel, causing extensive damage. There have also been more than 30 incidents of missiles carrying cluster bomb warheads hitting populated areas, with over 200 separate impact sites.
Trump: Israel a ‘team player,’ will ‘stop when I stop’
Trump said Thursday that Israel will follow his orders and halt fire if he decides to end the war.
“They’ll do what I tell them,” Trump told Time Magazine, in an interview conducted the morning after his primetime speech from the White House about the conflict. “They’ve been a good team player. They’ll stop when I stop.”
“They’ll stop, unless they’re provoked, in which case, they’ll have no choice, but they’ll stop when I stop,” he added.
The Time Magazine story — a lengthy account of how Trump decided to launch the war alongside Israel and of his attempts to now seek an offramp given the unpopularity of the war in the US — also cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has little room to maneuver without Trump’s backing.
The article recounted Netanyahu’s lobbying for Trump to join a prolonged attack on the Islamic Republic.
Citing an unnamed source who was in the room as Netanyahu met Trump for an hours-long meeting in Washington, it said the premier told the US president, “We’ve come this far, Donald. We have to finish what we started,” arguing that Tehran was playing for time and would secretly race toward a nuclear bomb.
According to Time, both Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are pushing Trump to continue the fighting until Iran is further weakened, although both recognize that they must defer to the US president’s timeline.
The president himself would like a way out, the article said, but is also committed to preventing an outcome that would allow Iran to inch closer to developing a nuclear bomb down the road.
Trump, furious over leaks, lied to some staff about plans
The magazine also reported that Trump was furious at some administration officials for leaking information about the planned attack on Iran.
At a Mar-a-Lago meeting on February 27, Trump decided that he didn’t trust everybody in the room. “He thought the group was too big,” an official told Time, saying the meeting included people Trump didn’t recognize, or felt he didn’t know well enough.
At the meeting, the president falsely declared that he’d called off the operation, the report said, when in fact he’d already decided to attack that very night.
After the fake-out, the president called back a small number of trusted officials to prepare for the strikes, the report said.
The story also echoed previous reporting that the White House was surprised by the ferocity of Iran’s response to the initial US-Israeli attack. It cited a person familiar with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that Hegseth “was caught off guard. There’s no question.”
The Pentagon rejected that account, with Hegseth’s spokesman Sean Parnell telling Time that the military had already “anticipated, war-gamed and fully prepared for every possible Iranian response” before the war began.
