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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke Monday to widening concerns that the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran could spiral into a protracted regional conflict by declaring, "This is not Iraq. This is not endless," even as he warned that more American casualties are likely in the weeks ahead.
Hegseth, along with Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held the Trump administration's first news briefing since Saturday's strikes. President Donald Trump, while he's conducted a few phone interviews, instead released two videos since the operation began and spoke briefly about it at an unrelated White House event Monday but did not take questions.
While the Trump administration has cited Iran's nuclear ambitions as the chief concern to be addressed, officials increasingly are pointing to the threat from Iran's ballistic missiles as a key reason to launch the attacks as well as an opportunity to take out the government's leadership and the sense that negotiations around the nuclear program have stalled.
Trump said Iran's conventional missile program "was growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas."
Hegseth also said the operation had a "decisive mission" to eliminate the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles, destroy the country's navy and ensure "no nukes."
Trump, Hegseth and Caine have not suggested any exit plan or offered signs that the conflict would end anytime soon as the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast doubt on the future of the Islamic Republic and hurtled the region into broader instability.
"This is not a so-called regime-change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it," Hegseth said. He added that it was "no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise."
Trump, however, in his video statements, has urged members of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and military police to lay down their arms and for the Iranian people "to take back your country."
The conflict has spiraled into the wider region, with Iran and its allied armed groups launching missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. military targets in the Middle East.
Four American troops have been killed in action, with Trump, Hegseth and Caine predicting more U.S. casualties. The top defense leaders did not offer details on the circumstances of the troops' deaths.
"We grieve with you, and we will never forget you," Caine said of the troops killed and their family members. The latest sign of the escalating upheaval came when, the U.S. military said, ally Kuwait "mistakenly shot down" three American fighter jets during a combat mission as Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones were attacking. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely from the American F-15E Strike Eagles and were in stable condition.
Asked if there are boots on the ground now in Iran, Hegseth said, "No, but we're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do."
He said it was "foolishness" to expect U.S. officials to say publicly "here's exactly how far we'll go."
Trump told the New York Post on Monday he wasn't ruling out U.S. forces in Iran if "they were necessary."
"I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground," he said.
At the White House, Trump said the U.S. expected the mission could take four to five weeks but "we have the capability to go far longer than that."
Hegseth dismissed questions about the time frame at his briefing and said Trump had "latitude" to decide how long it would take.
"Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks," he said. "It could move up. It could move back."
In laying out a case for the strikes, Hegseth did not point to any imminent nuclear threat from Iran and said again that strikes by the U.S. and Israel last June "obliterated their nuclear program to rubble."