Leavitt: Operation Epic Fury 'Resounding Success' as U.S. Strikes More Than 2,000 Targets, Iran Missile Launches Down 86%
White House says at least 49 regime leaders killed, including supreme leader; 17,500 Americans evacuated; Navy poised to escort oil tankers through Strait of Hormuz; polls show majority oppose strikes.
WASHINGTON -- The White House declared Operation Epic Fury a resounding success Tuesday, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters American forces have struck more than 2,000 targets inside Iran and driven Iranian ballistic missile launches down 86% from opening-day levels. Those figures come from the administration and have not been independently verified.
"American forces have struck more than 2,000 targets, destroying hundreds and hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers, and drones," Leavitt said from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. "As the Department of War said this morning, we expect to have complete and total dominance over Iranian airspace in the coming hours."
The operation, launched jointly with Israel on Feb. 28, has also sunk more than 20 Iranian naval vessels, Leavitt said, including the country's top submarine -- destroyed by a U.S. torpedo, the first such use in combat since World War II. "There is not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, or the Gulf of Oman," she told reporters.
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Six U.S. service members have been killed since the operation began, confirmed by U.S. Central Command as of March 2.
The toll rose from three over the first days of fighting as additional casualties were recovered and a wounded service member succumbed to injuries.
Trump intends to attend the dignified transfer for all six, Leavitt said, with the Department of War working to finalize scheduling.
"These heroes represent the very best among us," she said. "They laid down their lives in defense of our country, and we will never forget their legacy or their sacrifice."
The briefing's opening statement traced Iran's record of aggression back 47 years, from the 1979 embassy seizure in Tehran to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. service members, to proxy operations that killed and maimed hundreds of Americans in Iraq.
Leavitt framed Operation Epic Fury as the consequence Iran's leaders had earned through decades of defiance.
"47 years of tolerating and enabling the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism are over," she said. "Iran's murderous terrorist leaders are paying for their crimes against America, and they are paying in blood."
On the decision to strike, Leavitt rejected suggestions the administration had no clear legal or intelligence basis. Multiple senior officials, among them the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, and the chairman of the joint chiefs have each offered accounts of what drove the operation.
Asked why those accounts differ, she was direct: "President Trump does not make these decisions in a vacuum. This decision was based on a cumulative effect of various direct threats that Iran posed to the United States."
Diplomacy, she argued, was not skipped, it was exhausted.
U.S. negotiators had offered Iran a sanctions-relief package, nuclear fuel at no cost, and American investment in a peaceful civilian nuclear program, all under a mutually agreed framework. Tehran turned down every offer.
"They refused to say yes to peace," Leavitt said, "and their refusal made clear that their number one priority was building a nuclear weapon with which to threaten the United States of America."
The White House says at least 49 senior Iranian officials have been killed, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. CBS News, citing intelligence and military sources, reported 40 officials killed as of March 1; the administration's higher figure has not been independently confirmed.
Whether the operation's aims extend to full regime change, Leavitt would not say directly but she did not rule it out. "Do we want to see Iran being led by a rogue terrorist regime? No, of course not," she said. "Any day the United States of America is taking out a terrorist is a good day for our country."
Ground troops are not part of the current plan, she said, while declining to take the option off the table entirely. On munitions, Leavitt pushed back against published reports suggesting stockpiles are under strain.
"The United States of America has more than enough capability to not only successfully execute Operation Epic Fury, but to go much further," she said. "We have weapon stockpiles in places that many people in this world don't even know about." She attributed any shortfalls to the prior administration's transfers to Ukraine.
Reporters also pressed Leavitt on the 17,500 Americans who have returned home from the Middle East since operations began, with another 8,500 arriving Monday. Some Americans still in the region reported being told by a State Department hotline that no help was available.
Leavitt acknowledged the problem and said it had been corrected. "I saw many people in this room very quick to do selfie videos with the line yesterday, but not so quick to report on the corrected message today," she said.
The administration had been warning Americans to leave the region for weeks before the strikes.
The State Department issued Level 4 "Do Not Travel" advisories for multiple countries on Feb. 11. The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon ordered non-emergency personnel out on Feb. 23. On Feb. 27, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Iran a state sponsor of wrongful detention and the U.S. ambassador to Israel urged Americans to depart Iran immediately. On March 2, the State Department told all U.S. citizens to leave Lebanon at once.
Energy markets drew sustained attention throughout the briefing. The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly 20% of global daily oil supply, and Leavitt said crude prices fell Monday and held steady Tuesday after Trump announced the U.S. Development Finance Corporation would offer political risk insurance for oil carriers operating in the Gulf. If necessary, she said, the U.S. Navy will escort tankers through the strait.
"Iran will no longer be controlling the Strait of Hormuz and restricting the free flow of energy," Leavitt said.
Rarchar Tortorello is Executive Editor of CityNewsOKC and CityNewsAmerica and the publication's White House correspondent. He hosts The Patriot Sentinel podcast, covering Oklahoma politics and national affairs. A retired combat veteran and former Norman City Councilmember, Tortorello brings more than two decades of public service to his journalism. Follow him on X @Rarchar or contact him
Claims that a U.S. airstrike killed 175 people at a girls' elementary school brought a sharp denial. "Not that we know of," Leavitt said, adding that the Department of War is investigating and that U.S. forces do not target civilians. She called Iranian civilian casualty reports propaganda and warned reporters against amplifying them.
Whether the American public is with the president on this is a harder question. Leavitt said Trump trusts the country to look past negative coverage and understand why the strikes were necessary.
Available polling suggests otherwise. A survey conducted Sunday found just 27% of Americans supported the strikes, with 43% opposed.
A separate poll released Monday put disapproval at 59%, with 60% saying they see no clear plan and 62% calling for congressional authorization before operations continue. Leavitt did not address those numbers.
The briefing ended on a combative note. A CNN correspondent challenged the administration's posture on press coverage of the six fallen service members, arguing that reporting troop deaths is not an attempt to damage the president. Leavitt disagreed.
"You and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and try to use it to make the president look bad," she said. "That is an objectable fact."
Away from the war, Leavitt said the domestic agenda has not stalled. The SAVE Act remains a legislative priority, and Trump was scheduled Tuesday afternoon for a Rate Payer Protection Pledge roundtable with technology and AI companies that have committed to covering electricity costs in communities where they are building facilities. "The president can walk and chew gum at the same time," she said.
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Trump will also host heads of state from 12 Western Hemisphere nations in Miami on Saturday for a newly announced Latin America summit focused on regional security, narco-terrorism, and migration. Attendees include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago.
A joint U.S.-Ecuador military operation against designated terrorist organizations, launched March 3, was offered as a preview of the cooperation the summit is meant to formalize.
