“We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of manoeuvre for US forces,” General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news briefing at the Pentagon.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the US was winning in its war against Iran, even as he lamented six US troops killed so far in the conflict. He said the US would outlast Iran.

Hegseth confirmed that the US military sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, calling it the first sinking of an enemy ship by torpedo since World War II.

The US sinking was first reported by Reuters.

“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death,” Hegseth said.