Hegseth sacks US defence intelligence chief; his Iran strike assessment angered Trump

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed the head of America’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in what US media described as a major shake-up at the Pentagon. Lt Gen Jeffery Kruse, who had been leading the DIA, was removed just weeks after a row with the White House over a leaked assessment of US strikes on Iran. Reports say two other senior commanders have also been pushed out.

The Pentagon has not offered an official reason for Kruse’s removal. However, it follows President Donald Trump’s sharp criticism of a DIA assessment which claimed that the strikes on Iran had only set back its nuclear programme by a few months.

The White House called the assessment “flat out wrong”, while Trump insisted Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “completely destroyed” and described the criticism as “an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history”.

At the Nato summit in June, Hegseth himself attacked the report, calling it “low intelligence”, and confirmed that the FBI was investigating the leak.

According to Reuters, Hegseth has also removed the chief of the US Naval Reserves and the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command. The Washington Post was the first to report Kruse’s dismissal.

The Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), a branch of the Pentagon, is tasked with gathering and analysing military intelligence to support US operations worldwide. Unlike the CIA, it focuses mainly on technical and battlefield intelligence.

Critics warn of ’loyalty test’

US Senator Mark Warner said Kruse’s ousting showed that Trump had a “dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country”.

The move is part of a broader pattern. Trump has previously targeted officials whose findings contradicted his claims. In July, he demanded the immediate sacking of Labour Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer after jobs data pointed to slowing growth. And in April, he removed General Timothy Haugh as head of the National Security Agency, along with several senior staff from the National Security Council.