India, May 1 -- Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth clashed with Democrats at a House panel hearing fending off accusations of misleading the public on the Iran war and firing senior military officers.

The six-hour hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday to discuss the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion defence budget, turned into a slanging match between Hegseth, who was facing the Congress for the first time since the Iran war broke out on February 28.

Pentagon officials pegged the cost of the Iran war at $25 billion, a figure that was viewed with scepticism by a section of the Democratic lawmakers, who questioned Hegseth's competence as defence secretary and sought to know from him whether President Donald Trump was "...