DIA Chief Fired for Exposing Iran Strike Failure

By Staff, Agencies

US War Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed a senior general following an intelligence assessment on Iran’s nuclear program that reportedly angered President Donald Trump.

Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA], sources confirmed to AP. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly.

The firing followed a leaked report showing US strikes only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by months, contradicting claims by Trump and Netanyahu of major damage.

Trump had declared the program “completely and fully obliterated,” rejecting the assessment outright.

At a June press conference after the strikes, Hegseth criticized media coverage of the leaked findings but did not provide concrete evidence of the facilities’ destruction.

“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated – choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,” Hegseth asserted.

Kruse’s exit, first reported by the Washington Post, highlights Trump’s pattern of firing officials who challenge his narrative—part of a broader clampdown on data and research.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump announced on June 22 that the United States carried out what he described as a "very successful attack" on three Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

Trump stated that a "full payload of bombs" was dropped on Fordow, the primary target, and confirmed that all US aircraft involved in the operation have exited Iranian airspace and are "safely on their way home."

Satellite imagery showed Iran reinforcing key nuclear sites before recent US strikes, with soil dumped into tunnels at Isfahan and similar activity at Fordow—likely to limit damage.

Trump claimed the strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites, but the IAEA found no signs of radioactive contamination at Fordow, Natanz, or Isfahan.

The DIA chief’s firing comes amid major intel and military shakeups, including DNI budget cuts and the early retirement of Air Force Chief Gen David Allvin.

Hegseth and Trump have recently opted to remove senior officers without offering detailed explanations.

Those dismissed include former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen CQ Brown Jr., the Navy’s top commander, the Air Force’s No. 2, and senior legal officials from three branches.