Iran strike was Pentagon’s 1st use of 1-way drones, CENTCOM says
Smoke rises over the city center after an Israeli army launches 2nd wave of airstrikes on Iran on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Saturday’s attack against Iran was the Pentagon’s first use of one-way drones in combat, CENTCOM said, and only about three months since its first notable test in the field — a rapid turnaround for a weapon system in the United States’ arsenal.
The use of one-way drones comes as military planners have been rapidly building up a squadron in the Middle East of Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS, a one-way attack drone produced by Arizona-based SpektreWorks.
Each unit costs about $35,000 — much cheaper than a $30 million Reaper drone and subsequent munitions.
The drones are brand new, being deployed to the Middle East in December and having their first test flight from a Navy ship that month.
The American drone was reverse-engineered from Iran’s Shahed drones that have been used by Iran against Israel and by Russia against Ukraine.
The new drones are part of CENTCOM’s Task Force Scorpion Strike, which was founded shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed acceleration of the acquisition and deployment of cheap drone technology last summer.
LUCAS drones are designed to operate autonomously, according to CENTCOM. They can be launched with different mechanisms to include catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and ground and vehicle systems.
“Autonomous” doesn’t always refer to technology that doesn’t require humans for a designate a target, just that it doesn’t necessarily require human involvement after a target is selected, according to Pentagon policy.
One-way attack drones became notable in the war in Ukraine and spurred enormous investment into the technology from the Pentagon as a significantly cheaper option with relative ease of use compared to other weapons and aircraft.
“The first hours of the operation included precision munitions launched from air, land, and sea,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens as President Donald Trump addresses the media during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club on Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Who is running Venezuela and how?
Confusion continued Monday amid seemingly contradictory messages from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio about how the U.S. is dealing with the country after American forces captured dictator Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.
Trump on Sunday night doubled down on his assertion that the U.S. was “in charge” of the South American nation, after first proclaiming on Saturday the U.S. would “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.”
“We’re dealing with the people. We’re dealing with the people that just got sworn in. And don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial,” Trump told reporters on Sunday as he flew back to Washington from Florida.
“What does that mean?” a reporter asked him.
“It means we’re in charge,” said Trump, who talked about extracting oil riches and potentially putting boots on the ground.
The president’s comments appear to be at odds with the less definitive characterization Secretary of State Marco Rubio made earlier Sunday during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” Rubio is one of the Cabinet officials Trump said would “run” the country.
While Trump stated plainly that his administration was in charge and running things in Venezuela, Rubio was more circumspect, suggesting the U.S. would use economic leverage to impose its will.
“What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward. And that is, we have leverage. This leverage we are using. And we intend to use. We started using already,” Rubio told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, referring to the U.S. quarantine on sanctioned oil tankers.
Rubio, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, said the Trump administration control plan relates to policy changes.
“But it is running this policy. And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States first and foremost, because that’s who we work for, but also we believe beneficial for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously. We want a better future for Venezuela,” Rubio said.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz echoed Rubio on Monday, telling the United Nations Security Council that the U.S. is “not occupying a country.”
“As Secretary Rubio has said, there is no war against Venezuela or its people. We are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement operation in furtherance of lawful indictments that have existed for decades. The United States arrested a narco-trafficker who is now going to stand trial in the United States in accordance with the rule of law for the crimes he’s committed against our people for 15 years,” Waltz said.
Waltz and other administration officials have described the capture of Maduro as a law enforcement operation that was facilitated by the U.S. military.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by U.S. forces early Saturday in the capital of Caracas.
Trump, speaking in-depth on the operation from his Mar-a-Lago club that morning, said the U.S. would “make Venezuela great again.” American companies would soon start selling the country’s vast oil reserves, he said.
But when pressed about who exactly would be running Venezuela, Trump said that it was some of the people “behind” him, which also included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
On Saturday, a U.S. official gave more details about what the U.S.-run Venezuela would look like, saying that top administration officials would “continue to diplomatically engage with those remaining in the Venezuelan government” and also engage with oil executives as they begin to expand industry there.
Maduro and his wife made their initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday to face federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine. They pleaded not guilty. Maduro declared he is “innocent” and “still president.”
Meanwhile in Venezuela, the country’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as the interim president on Monday.
Trump on Saturday said Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, didn’t have the “respect” to govern the country.
He also had said that Rodriguez was cooperating with the U.S., a claim she appeared to dispute in an address to Venezuelans when she called for Maduro’s immediate release.
Asked on Sunday night to clarify where he stands with Rodriguez, Trump said: “I don’t have to tell you. I just say that she will face a situation probably worse than Maduro, because, you know, Maduro gave up immediately.”
In a more conciliatory message on Sunday night, Rodriguez said she would “prioritise moving towards balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela, and between Venezuela and other countries in the region, premised on sovereign equality and non-interference.”
“President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. This has always been President Nicolas Maduro’s message, and it is the message of all of Venezuela right now. This is the Venezuela I believe in and have dedicated my life to,” Rodriguez wrote in a social media post.
ABC News’ Mike Pappano and Brianna Sanchez contributed to this report.
Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, US Customs and Border Protection, Commissioner Rodney Scott, and Acting Director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons testify before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, February 12, 2026 in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Rand Paul had strong words on Thursday for the heads of the federal agencies spearheading the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement in Minneapolis and across the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott, and Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joseph Edlow were testifying in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
“Witness the thousands of people in the streets in Minneapolis and in Minnesota, and the millions of viewers who witnessed the recent deaths,” Paul, the committee’s chairman, said. “It’s clearly evident that the public trust has been lost. To restore trust in ICE and Border Patrol, they must admit their mistakes, be honest and forthright with their rules of engagement, and pledge to reform. I hope the leadership of ICE and Border Patrol here today will participate in a meaningful way.”
Paul and ranking member Sen. Gary Peters went frame by frame on videos of the shooting of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old Minneapolis nurse killed in an encounter with federal agents last month. Federal officials initially said that Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and “attacked” officers carrying out immigration duties.
State and local officials said Pretti was lawfully carrying a gun, with a concealed carry permit, and video reviewed and verified by ABC News does not appear to show that Pretti drew his gun on the agents and instead was holding up a cell phone, not a gun, to record agents during the incident.
Another Minneapolis resident – Renee Good — was also shot and killed by federal agents in early January. Federal officials say that the agents acted in self defense after Good allegedly tried to ram them with her car, which local city officials and her family have disputed.
Paul said that it isn’t so much about the specifics of the investigation, but rather the training that CBP and ICE agents receive.
“No one in America believes shoving that woman’s head and face in the snow was de-escalation,” Paul said of video showing agents scuffling with Pretti and a woman moments before the shooting. “But your officer, you need to know they…had a verbal encounter with them. She did not place her hands on the officers. She wasn’t trying to get their weapon. It’s not great. I mean … I don’t like to see these encounters either, but is it appropriate for the officers to respond to a verbal, barrage of words or whatever? Is it proper, to physically throw a woman down or throw anyone down if the only action is verbal?”
Both Scott and Lyons agreed that it wasn’t de-escalation if the only action against the agents had been verbal.
“I understand you not wanting to make conclusions yet, but nobody believes you’re gonna because you made conclusions immediately,” Paul told the law enforcement leaders. “Not you. But people within the government made conclusions immediately that [Pretti] was a terrorist and an assassin … people aren’t believing there’s going to be an honest investigation.”
In the hours after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti committed an “act of domestic terrorism” and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called him a “would-be assassin” and a “terrorist.”
Paul added at the hearing, “I think it’s terrible police work, but there has to ultimately be repercussions.”
Scott said that he would not jump to conclusions and asked the nation to do the same. He said he was committed to releasing the officers’ body-worn-cameras once the investigation is complete.
“There’s body-cam video, that’s all being looked at,” Scott said. “And until all that evidence is evaluated, I can’t jump to a conclusion on either direction. I would ask America to do the same thing, but I am committed to transparency, to making sure all the information we have is made public when it’s appropriate.”
Paul said that he saw “nothing, not even a hint of something that was aggressive on [Pretti’s] part.”
“I don’t think this should take months and months and years and years. There needs to be a conclusion,” Paul said. “We need to have answers here and there needs to be an announcement. These are the new policies. This is how we’re going to interact with the public, because the public needs to know to, you know, if I go to a protest and I shout something at people, could I be killed?”
Scott also did not say whether the gun was accidentally discharged by officers in the Pretti case, citing an ongoing investigation.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on February 25, 2026 in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday said Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin will replace Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary.
Trump made the announcement on social media Thursday afternoon saying he was “pleased to announce that the Highly Respected United States Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), effective March 31, 2026.”
“The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Kristi for her service at ‘Homeland,'” Trump said in the post.
The news that the Oklahoma senator would take over Noem’s job came after several sources told ABC News that Trump had called Republicans and top allies asking if he should fire her.
The president had privately expressed deep frustration over Noem’s testimony during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, those sources with direct knowledge of the conversations said.
The sources said the president was upset with a particular moment during the hearing when Republican Sen. John Kennedy questioned Noem about a taxpayer-funded $220 million ad campaign. Noem repeatedly suggested the president was aware of the campaign and signed off on it.
A senior administration officials tells ABC News that the president did not sign off on a $220 million ad campaign.
“Absolutely not,” the senior administration official said.
Kennedy told reporters Thursday that Trump even called him about it.
“I’m not going to speak for him. You folks know him. You can ask him yourselves, but his, I want to put it this way, his recollection and her recollection are different,” Kennedy said.
Tuesday’s hearing was just the latest in several incidents that have sparked concern among Trump administration officials and some Republicans on Capitol Hill, sources tell ABC News.
Just days ago, Noem and her top adviser Corey Lewandowski made the decision to temporarily suspend TSA Precheck amid the partial government shutdown — which later had to be reversed after the White House stepped in, according to sources.
Noem has faced criticism in recent weeks over her handling of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement. She was removed from leading operations in the state following the scrutiny, and Border Czar Tom Homan was sent in to take over.
During a Cabinet meeting in January, the president did not call on Noem to speak.
