Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Friday that two weeks of U.S. attacks have “destroyed” Iran’s military and air defenses, making it incapable of engaging in combat.

"Never before has a modern, capable military, which Iran used to have, been so quickly destroyed and made combat ineffective," Hegseth said during a press briefing with reporters. 

U.S. and Israeli bombing missions continue to destroy Iranian factories that make components for ballistic missiles and drones, he added, claiming that the number of missiles and attack drones Iran has been using to retaliate has gone down by over 90% since the war began.

Despite the U.S. campaign, Iran has found ways to attack oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf in recent days, bottling up the key transit route for about 20% of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas shipments and driving up the global price of oil. 

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Thursday, in a message read by a news anchor on state television, that Iran will continue to block the Strait. 

“The leverage of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must continue to be used,” Khamenei said in his first public statement since his father was killed in U.S–Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28.

The fact that Iran’s new leader didn’t appear on camera has been interpreted by U.S. officials as indicative that he is in hiding, afraid to give up his location, and is having trouble communicating inside the country. 

“We know the new so-called not-so Supreme Leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” Hegseth claimed, seemingly referencing speculation that the 56-year-old Iranian was injured in the strikes that killed several members of his family. 

Hegseth described Iran’s attacks in the crucial shipping lanes as a sign of “sheer desperation.”

“The only thing prohibiting transit in the Strait right now is Iran shooting at shipping,” he said. “That’s not a Strait we’re going to allow to remain contested or without a flow of commercial goods.”

Hegseth dismissed concerns about the safety of getting through the Strait, telling reporters they “don’t need to worry about it.” It is “something we are dealing with,” he said.  

The Defense Secretary went on to criticize the press for reporting on how war planners have handled Iran’s actions against international shipping. 

He singled out CNN for reporting that the Pentagon underestimated the war's impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Hegseth denied this and, in an apparent attempt to chill such reporting, implied that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison should silence such reporting if a pending merger between Paramount and CNN’s owner Warner Bros. goes through. “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” he said.  

The U.S. Navy is still studying how it may be able to provide armed escorts to ships passing through the Strait, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday. 

“It is a tactically complex environment and before we take anything through we want to be sure,” he said. 

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday on CNBC that the U.S. is “not ready” to escort tanker vessels, with the U.S. military currently focused on “destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities.”

A lot of the U.S. and Israeli air operations are now focused on blowing up factories Iran uses to build ballistic missiles and other weapons, Hegseth said. 

Iran's missile force "is shrinking daily" and the air strikes are intended to ensure Iran’s leaders “don’t have the ability to build more.” Iran had a stockpile of thousands of missiles at the start of the war and has launched hundreds at Israel and other countries in the region since Feb. 28. Hegseth said that destroying Iran’s ballistic missile program is an important part of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons program. 

One U.S. attack in the first wave of U.S. and Israeli air strikes may have hit a girls elementary school.

Some 175 people were killed, at least 108 of them children, a representative of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, a network of teachers’ unions in Iran, told TIME. 

U.S. Central Command has launched an investigation into the incident, Hegseth said. 

“CENTCOM has designated an investigating officer to complete a command investigation,” he confirmed. “The investigating officer is from outside CENTCOM and is a senior officer.” 

Hegseth said the U.S. does not target civilians.