Israel defense minister says no time limit on Iran campaign

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that the joint bombing campaign with the US against Iran would go on “as long as necessary,” insisting the strikes had inflicted heavy casualties on Tehran’s forces.
“This operation will continue without any time limit, as long as necessary, until we achieve all the objectives and decide the outcome of the campaign,” he said, adding that the Iranian leadership was fleeing “like mice into tunnels.”
Katz said hospital morgues in Iran were full, but insisted the casualties were not civilians.
He added that strikes would continue in Tehran and across the country “day after day, target after target.”
The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, killing its supreme leader and plunging the Middle East into a spiralling war.
The attacks came weeks after Iranian authorities ruthlessly crushed mass protests, although the United States and Israel say they are not necessarily seeking to topple the Islamic republic.
Katz said strikes would continue “in order to allow the Iranian people to rise up, act, and remove this regime,” adding that “ultimately, that is something that depends on them.”