‘Credible intelligence' of severe damage to Iran's nuclear sites: CIA
Washington: The CIA says there is credible intelligence that Iran's nuclear program was severely damaged by US bombing, citing new information from reliable sources, as US President Donald Trump stepped up his attacks on reporters who have queried the extent of the destruction.
It came as the Trump administration provided slightly more details about the damage it claims was done, saying a uranium conversion facility at Isfahan in central Iran had been 'wiped out'.
Trump said the US believed Iran had been unable to move out uranium stockpiles and other equipment before the attack.
The administration also moved to dampen scepticism about the efficacy of the strikes by scheduling a news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday morning (10pm Thursday AEST) that Trump said would provide 'irrefutable' evidence of the mission's success, as well as a private briefing for members of Congress.
Trump again dismissed a preliminary report from the Defence Intelligence Agency, an arm of the Pentagon, which said it was plausible the sites hit by the US were only partially damaged.
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'Since then, we've collected additional intelligence. We've also spoken to people who've seen the site, and the site is obliterated. And we think everything nuclear is down there, they didn't take it out,' he told a news conference after the NATO summit in the Netherlands.
'We think we hit them so hard and so fast, they didn't get to move [the material]. It's very, very heavy, it's very, very hard to move. They were way down, they were literally 30 to 35 storeys down underground.
'We think it's covered with granite, concrete and steel.'
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ABC News
38 minutes ago
- ABC News
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unleashes on the media as he defends US strikes on Iran
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has unleashed on journalists in a bizarre briefing at the Pentagon, saying their "hatred" of Donald Trump was behind efforts to verify the extent of the damage to the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran. Mr Hegseth appeared emotional over earlier reporting by CNN and the New York Times based on a leaked intelligence report that cast doubt on Mr Trump's assertion that Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated". There had been hopes Mr Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine would provide evidence of the impact of the strikes. Since the attack on Saturday night, local time, media organisations across the world have been scrambling to verify claims from the White House that the site had been obliterated, using satellite imagery to get a sense of the visible damage as well as Iran's preparation. But in the press briefing, organised for 8am Thursday morning, local time, Mr Hegseth singled out the press corps, as well as individual reporters in the room. He even slammed Fox reporter Jennifer Griffin saying she had been "about the worst". "Specifically you the press corps, because you cheer against Trump so hard, it's in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump, because you want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes," he said. "You have to hope maybe they weren't effective, maybe the way the Trump administration has represented them isn't true. "There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that because of the hatred of this press corps are undermined because your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful. It's irresponsible." Several experts cautioned that Iran may have moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of Fordow before the strike and could be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, the US and UN nuclear inspectors. Mr Hegseth said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from the US strikes. "I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise," he said at the briefing. They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday, local time, most of the near weapons-grade 60 per cent highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the attack. Head of the UN nuclear agency Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday, local time, his inspectors' top priority was returning to Iran's nuclear facilities to assess the impact of recent military strikes on Tehran's nuclear programme. The preliminary assessment, leaked to US press, reportedly found the weekend strikes only set back the country's nuclear program by a few months. Mr Hegseth said that leaked initial assessment was low confidence and said it had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran's nuclear program was severely damaged by the strikes and that it would take years to rebuild. "You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated, choose your word. This was a historically successful attack and we should celebrate it as Americans," he said. General Caine spoke at length about the crew involved in Operation Midnight Hammer and about the young team responsible for the protection of the US base in Qatar that was hit with retaliatory strikes. He talked about the experience of military members responsible for intercepting missiles inbound from Iran at the Al Udeid base, saying: "You know you're going to have approximately two minutes, 120 seconds either to succeed or fail." As well as the US air defender weapons, General Caine detailed the planning that went into the so-called "bunker busting bombs" that were dropped on Iran. He said In 2009 an officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran. "He was shown some photos and some highly classified intelligence of what looked like a major construction project in the mountains of Iran. He was tasked to study with this facility, work with the intelligence community to understand it. And he was soon joined by an additional teammate," General Caine said. "For more than 15 years this officer and his teammate lived and breathed this single target Fordow - a critical element of Iran's covert nuclear weapons program. "He studied the geology, he watched the Iranians dig it out, he watched the construction, the weather, the discard material ... where the materials came from, he looked at the vent shaft ... the environmental control systems, every nook, every crater, every piece of equipment going in and every piece of equipment going out." General Caine said from the first days of their mission, the officers believed they knew with the facility was for: "You do not build a multi-layered underground bunker complex with centrifuges and other equipment in a mountain for any peaceful purpose." He said then, more than 15 years later, the president had been ready to use the weapon. General Caine was pressed on whether he agreed with Mr Trump's use of the word "obliterated" to describe the impact on Iran's nuclear facilities, but deferred, saying it was not his role to make that assessment. The operation has been widely reported as being a precision strike that was executed according to plan, including sophisticated aerial manoeuvres throughout the 18-hour flight from the Missouri base from where the B2 bombers launched to their targets over Iran. Members of the media have been seeking verification of the impact once the bombs were dropped. The American media's coverage of leaked assessment reports have said it was preliminary and a clear picture was yet to form. Mr Trump attacked CNN as "disgusting and incompetent" in a post on Truth Social overnight, Donald Trump said the press conference was designed to "fight for the dignity of the American pilots" involved in Operation Midnight Hammer. Afterwards he wrote that Mr Hegseth's performance at the press conference was "professional". "One of the greatest, most professional, and most 'confirming' News Conferences I have ever seen!" the president wrote on social media," he wrote. "The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!" Mr Trump also emphasised his belief that Iran did not remove nuclear material from its facilities before the US attacked. "Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" he wrote. ABC/Reuters
9 News
an hour ago
- 9 News
Pentagon leaders cite military tactics to show destruction from US attacks on Iran
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Pentagon leaders have laid out new details about military tactics and explosives to bolster their argument that US attacks destroyed key Iranian nuclear facilities, but little more has emerged on how far back the bombing set Tehran's atomic program. In a rare Pentagon news briefing, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked on Thursday to shift the debate from whether the nuclear targets were "obliterated", as US President Donald Trump has said, to what they portrayed as the heroism of the strikes as well as the extensive research and preparation that went into carrying them out. "You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was an historically successful attack," Hegseth said in an often combative session with reporters. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (AP) It was the latest example of how Trump has marshalled top administration officials to defend his claims about the effectiveness of the US strikes. At stake is the legacy of the Republican president's intervention in the brief war between Israel and Iran, as well as the future of American foreign policy toward Iran. Hegseth appeared less confident that the strikes got all of Iran's highly enriched nuclear material. Asked repeatedly whether any of it was moved to other locations before the US attack, Hegseth acknowledged that the Pentagon was "looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where". He added, "I'm not aware of any intelligence that says things were not where they were supposed to be" or that they were moved. Satellite imagery showed trucks and bulldozers at Iran's Fordo uranium enrichment site, the main target of the bombings, days before the strikes, which occurred between 2.10am and 2.35am (8.40am and 9.05am AEST) on Saturday. Experts said enriched uranium stocks can be moved in small canisters and are hard to find. This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows damage at the Fordo enrichment facility in Iran after U.S. strikes, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP) (AP) "It would be extremely challenging to try and detect locations where Iran may be hiding highly enriched uranium," said Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the nonpartisan Arms Control Association. Trump expressed confidence that uranium was not pulled out before the attack. "Nothing was taken out of facility," he said on social media. "Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" The US Department of Defence released vision on June 26. 2025, of tests of the so-called "bunker buster" bombs. (US Department of Defence) US stealth bombers dropped 12 deep penetrator bombs, called bunker busters, on Fordo and two on the Natanz site, a US official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. Hegseth and Caine described 15 years of study and planning going into the bombing mission and they showed video of a test explosion of a "bunker buster" munition, designed to penetrate deep into mountains. While Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, spent the bulk of his time slamming the media coverage and personally insulting reporters who questioned him, Caine stuck to the military details of the bombing. Caine said the US targeted the ventilation shafts at the Fordo facility as the entry point for the bombs. In the days before the US attack, the Iranians placed large concrete slabs on top of both ventilation routes from the underground facilities to try to protect them, he said. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine speaks at a news conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon, Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (AP) He said the first bomb dropped was used to eliminate the concrete slab, and then four of the bombs were dropped down the main shaft with slightly different angles to take out various parts of the underground facility. The pilots of the bombers described the flash after the bomb drop as "the brightest explosion they had ever seen", Caine said. He noted it is not his job to do the assessment of the damage. Asked if he has been pressured to provide a more optimistic view of the results, Caine said no. "I've never been pressured by the president or the secretary to do anything other than tell them exactly what I'm thinking. And that's exactly what I've done," he said. Caine also lauded the troops who remained at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar when the Iran launched its counterattack Monday. He said just 44 soldiers stayed to operate the two Patriot missile batteries and protect the entire air base. "You know that you're going to have approximately two minutes, 120 seconds, to either succeed or fail," Caine said, adding, "They absolutely crushed it". The US Department of Defence released vision on June 26. 2025, of tests of the so-called "bunker buster" bombs. (US Department of Defence) Hegseth repeated assertions that an early assessment from the Defence Intelligence Agency, a part of the Defence Department, was preliminary and that the report acknowledged there was low confidence and gaps in information. Hegseth repeatedly scolded reporters for "breathlessly" focusing on that assessment and said such stories were just attempts to undermine Trump. That report said that while the US strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities did significant damage, the sites were not totally destroyed and that Tehran's program was only set back by a few months. Hegseth and others have not disputed the contents of the DIA report but have focused on a CIA statement and other intelligence assessments, including those out of Iran and Israel, that said the strikes severely damaged the nuclear sites and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, June 26, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (AP) The International Atomic Energy Agency is not now able to assess the exact damage to the Fordo site, but the centrifuges there are "no longer operational", the UN nuclear watchdog's chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told Radio France Internationale on Thursday. Trump appeared buoyed by Hegseth's fierce display of loyalty and his repeated attacks on news organizations during the briefing. The president said on social media that it was "one of the greatest, most professional, and most 'confirming' News Conferences I have ever seen!" War nuclear military USA Iran Middle East World Donald Trump Israel Iran Conflict CONTACT US
Sky News AU
an hour ago
- Sky News AU
'Nothing was taken': US President Donald Trump insists all Iranian nuclear materials destroyed, despite speculation some was moved
United States President Donald Trump has insisted "nothing" was removed from Iran's nuclear facilities prior to strikes from American bombers. Posting to social media following a fiery press conference by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, President Trump moved to shut down speculation nuclear materials had been taken from Iran's Fordow site prior the the attacks. "Nothing was taken out of (the) facility," he wrote. "Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" The President and others in his administration have repeatedly insisted all of Iran's nuclear assets were "obliterated" by US strikes, although the International Atomic Energy Agency has raised concerns over almost half a tonne of enriched uranium it says remains unaccounted for. Watch all the live coverage and analysis from our hosts and experts amid the escalating Israel-Iran conflict with a Streaming Subscription.
