"The commander of United States Central Command, Brad Cooper, said on Saturday that US forces have struck more than 8,000 Iranian targets since the start of combat operations, as the conflict with Iran entered its third week. In a video update, Cooper said the strikes included 130 vessels and described the campaign as one of the most intense in recent history. “Our progress is obvious. US forces maintain air superiority over Iran's skies, having now flown over 8000 combat flights. Our aircrews are performing exceptionally across the fight, from tankers to fighters and bombers to land-based and carrier-based aviation [...] constituting the largest elimination of a navy over a three-week period since World War Two,” he said. Cooper noted that 5,000-pound bombs were used earlier this week to strike a fortified underground facility along Iran’s coastline, underscoring the scale and intensity of the campaign. He also described the air defence network in the Middle East as "most extensive air defence umbrella," built over years of coordination with allied partners, pointing to success by US partners across the Gulf intercepting Iranian projectiles. This comes as reports on Friday said Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, though neither missile struck the facility. Separately, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed that Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility was targeted in recent strikes, but no increase in radiation levels had been detected outside the site. The agency reiterated calls for restraint to avoid a potential nuclear incident. Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi has said the Strait - which handles around 20 per cent of global oil traffic - "is open to friends and non-hostile countries, but closed to enemies and those who collaborate with them." The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Tehran responded with strikes on Israel and US assets in the region. The conflict soon widened to Israel and Hezbollah trading strikes across the border with Lebanon, too. The exact time and location of footage released by US CENTCOM could not be independently verified."