WASHINGTON — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth boasted Thursday that Iranian leadership positions are now “temp jobs” thanks to the US and Israel rapidly taking out the Islamic Republic’s top brass.

The Pentagon honcho specifically highlighted how Operation Epic Fury has been successful at picking off leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Basij, its paramilitary plainclothes force responsible for crushing internal dissent.

“The last job anyone in the world wants right now [is to be a] senior leader for the IRGC or Basij. Temp jobs, all of them,” Hegseth crowed to reporters during a news conference.

Since the war began on Feb. 28, the US and Israel have killed off dozens of the highest-ranking Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hours into the fight.

Throughout the joint campaign, Israel has placed a particular emphasis on targeting leadership and other regime personnel, while the US has done much of the grunt work in terms of obliterating Tehran’s military capabilities and infrastructure.  

On Tuesday, for example, Israel took credit for killing Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani as well as the regime’s top national security chief and de facto leader, Ali Larijani.

The following day, Israel announced that Tehran’s intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib, had also been killed in overnight strikes.

Hegseth also revealed Thursday that the US has “struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure” and teased that Tehran’s forces would face “the largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was.” 

“To borrow a page from Admiral Ernest King in World War II, we’ve decided to share the ocean with Iran — we’ve given them the bottom half,” he gloated. “We’ve damaged or sunk over 120 of their navy ships, with battle damage assessments pending for many more.”

Israel and the US have not always been on the same page in terms of how the war has been conducted. On Wednesday, President Trump distanced himself from Israel’s attack on South Pars, the Iranian part of a natural gas field shared with Qatar. Iran then attacked the Qatari side of that field in retaliation, causing extensive damage.

“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar,” Trump declared on Truth Social. 

Earlier this month, Israel bombed fuel depots in and around Tehran, causing massive infernos and black rain in the capital, with the Trump administration seemingly caught off guard by the size and scope of the attack. The move drew a rare rebuke from famously hawkish Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a staunch Trump ally. 

Trump has been keen on minimizing attacks against Iranian oil facilities, both because he views them as critical to rebuilding the country after the war, and out of wariness of actions that would make the Iranians sympathetic to the regime. 

When asked why the US is “helping Israel prosecute this war if they’re going to pursue their own objectives,” Hegseth refrained from bashing the US ally. 

“We hold the cards. We have objectives. Those objectives are clear. We have allies pursuing objectives as well. And the truth speaks for itself,” he replied.

“The United States military controls the fate of that country. Iran has the ability to make the right choices. It should not, going forward, target Arab allies, Arab countries, trying to create pain, the pain that they created themselves.”