Sri Lanka, March 5 -- United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Mar 4) rated the US performance in the war with Iran as a 15 on a scale of 10, saying the Islamic Republic's leaders were rapidly being killed, and vowing to push on.

Trump's comments came as the conflict expanded on its fifth day, with a US submarine sinking an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka and fresh blasts across the Middle East.

"We're doing well on the war front, to put it mildly. Somebody said on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15," Trump told a gathering of tech bosses at the White House.

"We're in a very strong position now, and their leadership is just rapidly going. Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end ...