Brightest explosion ever seen: Pentagon unveils how US hit Iran's nuclear sites
In a rare Pentagon briefing, senior military officials on Thursday shared detailed accounts of the US airstrikes on Iran's underground nuclear facilities, defending the mission's success and emphasising the technical precision and bravery behind the operation. However, questions remain over how much Tehran's nuclear program was actually set back.Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed that stealth bombers dropped a total of 14 deep-penetrating 'bunker buster' bombs: 12 on Iran's heavily fortified Fordo site and two on Natanz. According to one US official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, the targets were carefully selected following over a decade of intelligence gathering and operational planning.advertisementThe Pentagon also released test footage showing how the bunker-buster bombs were used during the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.Reporter: Why not acknowledge the female pilots? The early messages you sent out only congratulated the boys. pic.twitter.com/gxvagNbB31— Acyn (@Acyn) June 26, 2025
"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 declared in a combative exchange with reporters, defending President Trump's claim that the facilities were 'completely obliterated.'The operation, Caine explained, involved precision targeting of ventilation shafts, the weakest structural points of the underground nuclear site at Fordo. 'The first bomb dropped was used to eliminate the concrete slab,' he said. 'Then four more bombs were dropped down the main shaft with slightly different angles to take out various parts of the underground facility.'advertisementCaine added that the pilots described the aftermath of the strike as "the brightest explosion they had ever seen."Still, Caine refrained from making a definitive assessment of the damage. 'It's not my job to do the assessment,' he told reporters. When asked whether he had been pressured to present a more optimistic picture, he firmly replied, 'I've never been pressured by the president or the secretary to do anything other than tell them exactly what I'm thinking.'The general also praised the actions of US soldiers stationed at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar during Iran's retaliatory missile strike. Just 44 American troops manned the Patriot missile systems that successfully intercepted incoming threats.'You know that you're going to have approximately two minutes, 120 seconds, to either succeed or fail,' Caine said. 'They absolutely crushed it.'- Ends(With inputs from Associated Press)Trending Reel
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