00:00It's been 13 days in. Can you please provide some guidance, both of you, about the strike on the girls'
00:05school?
00:06There's been reporting that indicates that preliminary inquiry, even though it's ongoing, has determined that the airstrike was carried out
00:14by the United States.
00:16Given that there is another competing narrative that this was done intentionally, can you provide us with some guidance about
00:23whether this was the case?
00:27Secondly, we are also getting â we had heard yesterday from Energy Secretary Wright that said that the U.S.
00:33Navy would not be ready until the end of the month to provide escorts through the state of Hormuz.
00:39Is that an accurate assessment? And if so, can you tell us why? Thank you.
00:43Well, with an issue on your first topic, an issue of such seriousness, we don't â we're not going to
00:48let reporting lead us or force our hand into indicating what happened in a particular situation,
00:55because the truth matters. So I can report that CENTCOM has designated an investigating officer to complete a command investigation.
01:03The command investigation will take as long as necessary to address all the matters surrounding this incident.
01:08And the investigating officer is from outside CENTCOM and is a general officer.
01:12But I will note to this group and to the world, there's only one entity in this conflict between us
01:19and Iran that never targets civilians.
01:21Literally, never targets civilians. I look at the process that's used on dynamic strikes or on boat strikes and others.
01:29We have a very high-fidelity process in that case.
01:33So we don't target. Iran does. We will investigate. We'll get to the truth, and we'll share it when we
01:38have it.
01:39Absolutely. And what was the second question?
01:40About the Strait of Hormuz, about the Navy, the Secretary Wright.
01:43It's a tactically complex environment, and before I think we want to take anything through there at scale,
01:48we want to make sure that we do the work pursuant to our current military objectives to do that safely
01:55and smartly.
01:56So we're continuing to develop.
01:57And we do a lot of work.
01:59Yeah.
01:59And like I said, it is dynamic, but this is, I think, almost by 20 percent the largest day of
02:05strikes.
02:06And as I said, our intelligence just gets better and better.
02:09That feedback loop feeds itself.
02:11And as we refine those targets, it exponentially increases what we can hit and why to include strategic things the
02:19world's talking about and looking at.
02:20And it's our job to have a plan for it, which we do, to address it and ensure that the
02:25president has options.
02:27We've done that from the beginning in this department.
02:28He'll have options on that topic as well.
02:33An investigation is an investigation.
02:36That's what it is.
02:37It doesn't mean anything other than that.
02:38Ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today.
02:42Before I start with an update, I also want to address the tragic loss of our KC-135 refueling aircraft
02:49yesterday.
02:49The incident occurred over friendly territory in western Iraq while the crew was on a combat mission.
02:55And, again, was not the result, as CENTCOM has said, was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.
03:01We're still treating this as an active rescue and recovery operation.
03:05As CENTCOM announced this morning, four airmen have been recovered.
03:08And the Air Force and U.S. Central Command will provide updates as information becomes available.
03:13Please keep these brave airmen, their families, friends, and units in your thoughts in the coming hours and days.
03:20Our service members make an incredible sacrifice to go forward and do the things that the nation asks of them.
03:27It's a reminder of the true cost of the dedication and commitment of the Joint Force.
03:33We're also aware of a fire on board the USS Gerald R. Ford.
03:36We're thinking about the crew there who were injured in the fire.
03:39We believe and hope that everyone will be okay.
03:41And we're grateful for that.
03:43And for any further questions on that, we'd refer you to NavSent or...
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