6 U.S. service members killed in military plane crash; thousands of Marines reportedly being deployed to Middle East

The war with Iran neared the end of its second full week on Friday with U.S. officials boasting that its joint operation with Israel has largely decimated Tehran’s military capabilities in a sprawling conflict that has already resulted in thousands of deaths across the Middle East and shaken the global economy.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “wounded and likely disfigured” after Khamenei — who has not been seen in public since the war began — vowed in his first statement to avenge the “blood of martyrs.” Hegseth called the statement “weak” and predicted all of Iran’s defenses would soon be “destroyed.”

President Trump said in a social media post overnight that the U.S. is destroying Iran’s “terrorist regime,” adding: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags.” In a radio interview that aired Friday, Trump predicted the U.S. economy would quickly bounce back once the war ends. Asked when that would be, Trump replied: “When I feel it — when I feel it in my bones.”

In Tehran, a large explosion struck in a crowded square where thousands of people had taken to the streets of Iran’s capital for an annual state-organized pro-Palestinian rally, chanting “Death to Israel.”

Weanwhile, the Pentagon confirmed that all six crew members aboard a refueling U.S. military aircraft that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday have been found dead. The U.S. Central Command said that while an investigation is ongoing, the incident “was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”

And the overall death toll from the war continues to rise. At least 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the U.S.-Israeli strikes began on Feb. 28. More than 750 people in Lebanon have been killed and at least 15 in Israel, according to officials in those countries.

Seven U.S. service members have died in Iranian counterstrikes, according to the Pentagon, while 140 U.S. service members have been wounded in the ongoing conflict, including eight who were “severely injured.”