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The US assault on Iran was ahead of schedule, said the top American commander for the Middle East, as Israel ​and the US targeted sites deep inside the country, and Iran carried out strikes around the Gulf.

The five-day-old war continued to rattle global markets, as airline and tourism industries ‌scrambled to deal with more than 20,000 flight cancellations and governments rushed to bring stranded travellers home from the Middle East.

US Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads US ​forces in the Middle East as the head of Central Command, said the first 24 hours of the ‘Operation Epic Fury’ bombardment of Iran were “nearly double the scale” of ​the first 24 hours of the ‘Shock and Awe’ campaign that opened the Iraq War in 2003.

“We are seeing that Iran’s ability to hit ⁠us, and our partners, is declining, while our combat power, on the other hand, is building,” Cooper said in a video briefing released on Tuesday evening. “My overall operational assessment is that ​we are ahead of our game plan.”