Washington. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a general whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of US damage to Iranian nuclear sites angered President Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the people, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Hegseth also fired Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, who is chief of the Navy Reserve, as well as Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversees Naval Special Warfare Command, another US official said.

No reasons were given for their firings, the latest in a series of steps targeting military leaders, intelligence officials, and other perceived critics of Trump, who has demanded loyalty across the government. The administration also stripped security clearances this week from additional current and former national security officials.

Taken together, the moves could chill dissent and send a signal against reaching conclusions at odds with Trump’s interests.

Trump Decried Agency's Initial Findings on US Strikes on Iran
Kruse's firing comes two months after details of a preliminary assessment of US airstrikes against Iran leaked to the media. It found that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months by the military effort, contradicting assertions from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Republican president, who had pronounced the Iranian program “completely and fully obliterated," rejected the report. His oft-repeated criticism of the DIA analysis built on his long-running distrust of intelligence assessments, including one published in 2017 that said Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- which is responsible for coordinating the work of 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA -- has been declassifying years-old documents meant to cast doubt on those previous findings.

Following the June strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, Hegseth lambasted the press for focusing on the preliminary assessment but did not offer any direct evidence of the destruction of the facilities.

“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated -- choose your word. This was a historically successful attack,” Hegseth said at a news conference at the time.

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