WASHINGTON, March 4 — The US military commander in the Middle East said yesterday that American forces had struck nearly 2,000 targets so far in Iran as part of the largest firepower buildup in the region in a generation.

“We’ve already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions. We have severely degraded Iran’s air defences and destroyed hundreds of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers and drones,” Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command said in a video message.

“The first 24 hours of this operation were nearly double the scale” of the first day of shock-and-awe strikes on Iraq in 2003, “and we continue with 24/7 strikes into Iran,” he added. — AFP