Pentagon fires DIA chief after Iran airstrike report contradicts Prez claims

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed a top general whose agency’s intelligence assessment of damage from American airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites infuriated President Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official.

Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse will no longer lead the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the sources said on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly.

Hegseth also removed Vice Adm Nancy Lacore, Chief of the Navy Reserve, and Rear Adm Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who heads Naval Special Warfare Command, another US official confirmed.

No official reasons were given for the dismissals, the latest in a series of actions against military leaders, intelligence officials and others seen as insufficiently loyal to Trump. The administration also stripped additional national security officials of their security clearances this week.

Taken together, the measures risk chilling dissent within the ranks and signal the dangers of presenting conclusions at odds with Trump’s narrative.

Kruse’s sacking comes two months after details leaked of a preliminary DIA assessment of June’s US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites. The report concluded that Iran’s nuclear programme had been set back only a few months — contradicting Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who claimed the facilities had been decisively destroyed.

Trump, who declared the programme “completely and fully obliterated,” publicly rejected the intelligence report, reinforcing his long-standing mistrust of the intelligence community. At the time of the strikes, Hegseth denounced the press for highlighting the preliminary DIA analysis but gave no evidence to support claims of permanent destruction.

While the Pentagon has not explained the firings, Democrats in Congress have warned that Kruse’s ouster sets a troubling precedent for the independence of US intelligence.