US strikes against Iran not aimed at regime change: Pentagon

The U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites were not a preamble to regime change, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday, adding that Washington sent private messages to Tehran encouraging negotiation, reports reuters.

Officials kept operation "Midnight Hammer" highly secret, limiting knowledge of the mission to a small number of people in Washington and at the U.S. military's Middle East headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

Seven B-2 bombers flew for 18 hours from the United States into Iran to drop 14 bunker-buster bombs, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, told reporters.

Hegseth warned Iran against following through with past threats of retaliation against the United States and said U.S. forces would defend themselves.

"This mission was not and has not been about regime change," Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon. "The president authorized a precision operation to neutralize the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear program."

Caine said initial battle damage assessments indicated that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction, but he declined to speculate whether any Iranian nuclear capabilities might still be intact._Agencies.