U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the head of the Pentagon's intelligence agency, Lieutenant General Scott Kruse, along with two other senior military commanders, marking a significant shake-up in military leadership, three U.S. officials confirmed on Friday.
This latest purge is part of a broader pattern of dismissals within the Pentagon under the Trump administration. In April, President Donald Trump removed General Timothy Haugh from his position as director of the National Security Agency, following a similar purge that affected more than a dozen staff members at the White House National Security Council.
Hegseth's actions come on the heels of a string of high-profile firings, including the dismissal of Air Force General C.Q. Brown in February, alongside five other admirals and generals. This trend has raised concerns about the stability and continuity of U.S. military leadership, particularly as the chief of the U.S. Air Force recently announced his retirement midway through his term.
While the specific reasons for Kruse's firing remain unclear, it follows the leak of a preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency indicating that U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June only temporarily hindered Tehran’s program, contradicting Trump's assertion that the targets were "obliterated." As these changes unfold, analysts are closely monitoring the implications for U.S. military strategy and foreign relations in the region.
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