US intel. says half of Iran’s weapons are still intact as Trump, Netanyahu claim otherwise - report

Approximately half of Iran's missile launchers and one-way attack drones are still operational despite five weeks of heavy strikes by the US and Israel, according to a Friday CNN report citing recent US intelligence assessments. 

The intelligence information, relayed to CNN by sources familiar with the situation, indicated that the count may include missile launchers that are currently inaccessible, such as those buried under rubble but not destroyed in the strikes.

Sources added that a large percentage of Iran's cruise missiles, which allow it to threaten shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, were still intact.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US could end its military campaign against Iran within two to three weeks. Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel has severely weakened the Iranian regime.

CNN's sources, after reviewing the recent US intelligence assessment, determined that Trump's two-or three-week prediction for ending the war was wholly unrealistic.

“We can keep f**king them up, I don’t doubt it, but you’re out of your mind if you think this will be done in two weeks,” one source told CNN.

One week into the war, the IDF claimed that it had destroyed 75% of Iran's missile launchers; three weeks later, a Reuters report stated that US intelligence could only confirm that it had destroyed about one-third of Iran's missile arsenal. 

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell disputed CNN’s report, calling it “completely wrong.”

“The United States military has delivered a crippling series of blows to the Iranian regime,” Parnell told CNN. “We are far ahead of schedule on accomplishing our military objectives: destroy Iran’s missile arsenal, annihilate their Navy, destroy their terrorist proxies, and ensure Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.”

To that end, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters in a March 19 press conference that “ballistic missile attacks against our forces, down 90 percent since the start of the conflict, same with one-way attack UAVs, think kamikaze drones, down 90 percent.”

Hegseth continued to claim that Iran's military capabilities have been significantly damaged, noting in a press conference on Tuesday that Iran's "defense industrial base is nearly completely destroyed," and "their ability to reconstitute the weapons of war...is negligible."

Trump said the US "hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran," reiterating vows to increase the ferocity of attacks on its infrastructure, as dozens of countries sought ways to restart vital energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Nearly five weeks after it started with a joint US-Israeli aerial assault, the war in Iran continues to spread chaos across the region and roil financial markets, raising the pressure on Trump to find a quick resolution to the conflict.

Trump has stepped up his rhetoric in recent days as negotiations conducted via intermediaries with new leaders in Iran show limited signs of progress.

The US military "hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants," Trump wrote on social media late on Thursday, adding that Iran's leadership "knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!"

He earlier posted a video of the US bombing a newly constructed bridge between Tehran and the major northwest suburb of Karaj. The B1 bridge was scheduled to open to traffic this year. According to Iran's state media, eight people were killed, and 95 others were wounded in the US attack.

"Striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement.

Earlier this week, satellite images also showed smoke rising from the port in Qeshm, an Iranian island strategically located in the Strait of Hormuz.

Miriam Sela-Eitam and Reuters contributed to this report.