Washington DC, April 8 -- US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Wednesday revealed that the United States had prepared to strike multiple targets in Iran, including bridges and power plants, as part of US President Donald Trump's plan to kill "a whole civilisation" in Iran if a ceasefire deal was not reached on Tuesday.

During a news briefing at the Pentagon, alongside the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, Hegseth said that they had their targets "locked and loaded," when asked about Trump's warning that "a whole civilisation will die" if an agreement was not reached.

"We had a target set, locked and loaded, of infrastructure, bridges, power plants," the War Secretary said.

"They knew exactly the scope of what ...