Pentagon ousts intelligence chief after Iran strike report dispute
In June, a leaked DIA report concluded that the attacks had only delayed Iran’s nuclear programme by a few months.
The Pentagon has dismissed the head of its Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lt Gen Jeffery Kruse, in a move that follows weeks of tension over the agency’s assessment of US military strikes on Iran.
The removal was announced by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who also pushed out two other senior commanders.
The Pentagon did not immediately give reasons for the dismissals, but the decision comes shortly after a clash between the White House and the DIA over the impact of strikes carried out on Iranian nuclear sites.
In June, a leaked DIA report concluded that the attacks had only delayed Iran’s nuclear programme by a few months.
The White House publicly rejected the findings, calling them “flat out wrong”.
President Donald Trump insisted the targets had been “completely destroyed” and criticised media coverage as “an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history”.
During the Nato summit around the same time, Hegseth dismissed the report as based on “low intelligence” and revealed that the FBI was investigating how the findings were leaked. Kruse’s removal was first reported by the Washington Post.
The DIA, which provides military intelligence to support Pentagon operations, collects large amounts of technical data and works alongside but separately from agencies such as the CIA.
Alongside Kruse’s departure, Hegseth has also removed the chief of US Naval reserves and the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, according to a source quoted by Reuters.
The firings have drawn criticism, with Senator Mark Warner warning that Kruse’s dismissal showed that Trump had a “dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country”.
Trump has repeatedly removed senior officials whose reports or findings have contradicted his position. In July, he ordered the dismissal of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after data showed slower job growth.
In April, he fired General Timothy Haugh as head of the National Security Agency and dismissed more than a dozen staff at the White House national security council.
Hegseth has also reshaped Pentagon leadership. In February, he dismissed Air Force General C Q Brown along with five other admirals and generals.
