Satellite images show trucks lined up at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility before US air strikes
Satellite images appeared to show scores of trucks lined up at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility just days before the US carried out its large-scale air strikes – as speculation swirled that Tehran may have been able to move its uranium stockpiles before the attacks.
The images, released by US defence contractor Maxar Technologies, captured more than a dozen cargo-style trucks lined up outside the Fordow nuclear enrichment site's tunnel entrance on Thursday and Friday, The New York Post reported.
The vehicles, which came and went over a 24-hour stretch, appeared to move unidentified contents roughly half a mile (804 metres) away, The Free Press reported, citing US officials.
US and Israeli intelligence officials were aware of the movement at the time but opted not to act so they could track where the trucks headed and await President Donald Trump's order to carry out the strikes, the officials said.
Mr Trump gave the green light to launch 75 precision-guided munitions, including bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles, against Fordow and two other Iranian nuclear sites early on Sunday.
Iranian state media outlets have since claimed that the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites were evacuated in the lead up to the strikes.
Iran hasn't officially disclosed how much damage was sustained in the attack but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted on Monday the Trump administration was 'confident' that Tehran's nuclear sites were 'completely and totally obliterated'.
'We have a high degree of confidence that where those strikes took place is where Iran's enriched uranium was stored,' she told ABC News.
'The President wouldn't have launched the strikes if we weren't confident in that.
'So the operation was a resounding success and administration officials agree with that, as well as Israel.'
Mr Trump, for his part, hailed the strikes as a 'Bullseye!!!'.
Satellite imagery appeared to show that the strikes had severely damaged – or destroyed – the Forlow plant and possibly the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed.
'Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran,' the President said in a Truth Social post.
'The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!'
Still, US defence officials have said they are working to determine just how much damage the strikes did as speculation mounted that Iran could have shifted uranium from the underground military complex.
'I wish the Israelis had moved quicker to disable Fordow,' David Albright, a former United Nations weapons instructor, told The Free Press in the wake of the attacks.
'It's still a mystery exactly what was in those trucks. But any highly enriched uranium at Fordow was likely gone before the attack.'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC's Meet the Press that he doubts Iran was able to move anything prior to the attacks but acknowledged 'no one will know for sure for days'.
'I doubt they moved it,' he said.
'They can't move anything right now inside of Iran. I mean, the minute a truck starts driving somewhere, the Israelis have seen it, and they've targeted it and taken it out.'
He added that US officials believe a significant amount of Iran's stockpile of 60 per cent uranium had been located in the Isfahan facility when it was targeted.
'Our assessment is we have to assume that that's a lot of 60 per cent enriched uranium buried deep under the ground there is Isfahan,' Mr Rubio said.
Mr Rubio didn't specifically mention Fordow or Natanz but said Iran should now bring its stockpile 'out of the ground and turn it over'.
'That really is the key,' he said. 'Multiple countries around the world will take it and down blend it. That's what they should do with that.'
Ms Leavitt, meanwhile, dismissed Iran's threat of retaliation – insisting the US and the world were safer thanks to the President's attack.
'Just to be clear, yes, this strike on Saturday did make our homeland safer because it took away Iran's ability to create a nuclear bomb,' she told ABC News.
'This is a regime that threatens death to America and death to Israel. And they no longer have the capability to build this nuclear weapon and threaten the world. So (it's) not just the United States that's a safer place, but also the entire globe.'
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