Kentucky [US], March 12 (ANI): President Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time) said that the United States carried out a military strike against Iran under an operation named 'Epic Fury', claiming the action was aimed at eliminating threats posed by what he described as a 'terrorist regime'.

Addressing a gathering here, Trump said he chose this name for the operation out of the 20 names that the US military generals presented before him.

'I saw 'Epic Fury' and said, 'I like that name,' Trump said, describing how officials presented him with a list of possible names for the strike.

'They gave me like 20 names, and I'm like falling asleep, I didn't like any of them. Then I see Epic Fury. I said, 'I like that name. I like that name',' he added.

Trump also claimed the operation was successful and quickly achieved its objectives. 'It is only good if you win, you know, you can only, and we've won, let me tell you, we've won,' he said, adding, 'You know, you never like to say too early you won, we won, we won, but in the first hour it was over.'

The US president described the action as a limited military move intended to counter threats from Iran.

'We did an excursion, you know what an excursion is? We had to take a little trip to get rid of some evil, very evil people. It should have been done. For 47 years, they've been killing our people. 47 years. I can only say this: they were all prepared, they're very strong, you know, they're going to try and take over the whole Middle East, they were going to knock out Israel,' Trump said.

He further alleged that Iran had long-standing threats in the Gulf region and claimed the US strikes caught Iranian forces off guard.

'They don't know what the hell hit them, right? They don't know what the hell. They got hit by the American military, they don't know, they say, 'What the hell is happening?' They didn't expect anything like this,' he said.

Earlier, Trump described the ongoing US military action against Iran as an excursion that would keep his country out of war, implying that the strikes were intended to prevent a broader conflict.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to the Thermo Fisher Scientific facility in Cincinnati, Trump said the operation was aimed at neutralising Iran's missile and drone capabilities.

'Well, it's both. It's both. It's an excursion that will keep us out of a war, and the war is going to be - for them, it's a war; for us, it's turned out to be easier than we thought,' he said.

Trump claimed US forces had moved quickly to limit Iran's ability to launch attacks. 'But think of it, they had thousands of missiles, 7-8 thousand missiles. We got many of them before they got to launch,' he said.

The US president also said American forces were targeting Iranian drone manufacturing facilities and maritime assets linked to potential mining assets. (ANI)