Donald Trump said America was “knocking the c–p” out of Iran and a “big wave” of strikes was still to come.
Speaking to CNN, the US president suggested the strikes that killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking officials in the early hours of Saturday were just the start of his military campaign.
“We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon,” Mr Trump told CNN.
Mr Trump is speaking to the media this afternoon at a Medal of Honour ceremony.
He also refused to rule out American boots on the ground in Iran during an interview with the New York Post.
“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground. Like, every president says: ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it. I say ‘probably don’t need them’ [or] ‘if they were necessary’.”
Mr Trump’s most senior general said today that the US military would send more troops to the Middle East.
More “tactical aviation” – which could include fighter jets and drones – would be sent to the region after three days of air strikes, Gen Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon press conference.
In a warning to America’s adversaries, Gen Caine said: “We can reach you, we can sustain the fight and we will scale the fight.”
Trump: ‘had to do it the right way’
Donald Trump said the US had believed it was close to securing a deal with Iran before Tehran “backed out”, leaving Washington with no choice but to act.
“We thought we had a deal and then they backed out,” he said. “We had to do it the right way.”
The president insisted American forces would “easily prevail” and claimed operations were already “substantially ahead of time projections”.
While the initial timeline had been “four to five weeks”, Mr Trump said the US had the capability to continue for longer if necessary. “I don’t get bored — there’s nothing boring about this,” he added.
He also boasted that a plan projected to take four weeks to eliminate Iran’s military leadership had been completed “within an hour”.
Italy said on Monday that it was helping hundreds of its citizens to evacuate the United Arab Emirates (UAE), estimating there were currently around 30,000 Italian nationals there.
Speaking in the Italian Senate, Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister, said a group of 98 Italians had left the UAE for Oman on Sunday and would arrive in Rome later on Monday.
Another group of around 200 Italian students who had been stranded in Dubai is due to be evacuated on a UAE flight to Milan on Tuesday.
“We are creating corridors and networks of embassies to facilitate the movement of Italians to countries where there are flights available,” Mr Tajani said.