US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth  fired Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse, the head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and two other senior officers, Reuters reported.

Apart from Kruse, Hegseth removed Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, the chief of US Naval Reserves, and Rear Admiral Milton Sands, the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, an official, on condition of anonymity, told the news agency.

The three officials said they had no idea why they were fired. The removal came after DIA’s initial findings into the US attack on Iran appeared to contradict President Donald Trump’s claims. 

The agency’s June assessment stated that the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities caused only limited damage. But Trump claimed that the facilities had been “completely obliterated”.

Both the Pentagon and the White House confirmed the removal of Kruse, but they didn’t state the reason behind this move.

The dismissal was also confirmed by congressional officials, who claimed to have been informed that it was due to a “lack of confidence,” a generic term the military uses frequently to cover to remove someone, NBC News reported.

US Senator Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, stated, “The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country.”

Deputy Director Christine Bordine has assumed charge as Acting Director immediately, a spokesperson for the DIA told NBC News.

In April, Trump fired General Timothy Haugh, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA), as part of the larger purge that also included more than a dozen staff members at the White House National Security Council.