US bombing of Iran started with a fake-out
WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - As Operation "Midnight Hammer" got underway on Saturday, a group of B-2 bombers took off from their base in Missouri and were noticed heading out toward the Pacific island of Guam, in what experts saw as possible pre-positioning for any U.S. decision to strike Iran.
But they were a decoy. The real group of seven bat-winged, B-2 stealth bombers flew east undetected for 18 hours, keeping communications to a minimum, refueling in mid-air, the U.S. military revealed on Sunday.
As the bombers neared Iranian airspace, a U.S. submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles. U.S. fighter jets flew as decoys in front of the bombers to sweep for any Iranian fighter jets and missiles.
The attack on Iran's three main nuclear sites was the largest operational strike ever by B-2 stealth bombers, and the second-longest B-2 operation ever flown, surpassed only by those following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaeda.
The B-2 bombers dropped 14 bunker-busting GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, each weighing 30,000 pounds. The operation involved over 125 U.S. military aircraft, according to the Pentagon.
From the U.S. military's perspective, the operation was a resounding tactical success. The Iranians were unable to get off a single round at the American aircraft and were caught completely flat-footed, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Sunday.
"Iran's fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran's surface to air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission," Caine said. "We retained the element of surprise."
Caine said initial battle damage assessments indicated that all three sites targeted sustained extremely severe damage and destruction, but he declined to speculate whether any Iranian nuclear capabilities might still be intact.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was more confident.
"It was clear we devastated the Iranian nuclear program," he said, standing alongside Caine in the Pentagon briefing room.
Midnight Hammer was highly classified, Caine said, "with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of the plan." Many senior officials in the United States only learned of it on Saturday night from President Donald Trump's first post on social media.
Hegseth said it took months of preparations to ensure the U.S. military would be ready if Trump ordered the strikes. Caine said the mission itself, however, came together in just a matter of weeks.
What happens next is unclear.
Gulf states, home to multiple U.S. military bases, were on high alert on Sunday as they weighed the risks of a widening conflict in the region.
Guarding against blowback, the U.S. military also dispersed U.S. military assets in the Middle East and heightened force protection for U.S. troops.
Hegseth said the U.S. military was positioned to defend itself in the Middle East, but also to respond against Iran if it goes through with longstanding threats to retaliate.
The Trump administration said it is not looking for a wider war with Iran, with Hegseth saying private messages had been sent to Tehran encouraging them to negotiate.
But Trump has also warned Iran that the U.S. is prepared to hit additional targets if needed, using far greater force.
"Iran would be smart to heed those words. He said it before, and he means it," Hegseth said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Mahmoud Khalil renews devotion to Palestinian freedom at New York rally
Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian rights activist, freed from Ice detention on Friday, returned to Columbia University on Sunday to renew his commitment to the cause of Palestinian freedom and opposition to both the university and the Trump administration. Khalil arrived back in New York on Saturday after being released from more than 100 days in detention in Louisiana by a federal judge who ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail. Just outside of Columbia's gates and reunited with wife Noor Abdalla, Khalil thanked his supporters, legal team and 'to salute the courage of all students at Columbia and across the nation who had continued to protest'. Khalil made clear that following his release from detention he would battle what he called the 'shameful trustees at Columbia that are currently attempting to expel 15 more students and to suspend tens of others, basically conceding their future, their degrees and labor because they are not afraid to stand for Palestine'. The university, he added, 'would do anything and everything it can to ensure that the words 'free Palestine' are not uttered anywhere near it. 'But while we are here, Free, Free Palestine.' The crowd followed in a chant. Khalil went on to accuse Columbia of attempting to prevent the rally at its gates 'just so we cannot remind them that they fund the killing in Gaza' and he described himself not as someone who is violent, as he claimed he has been portrayed, 'but as a human rights defender'. His address determines that Khalil, the most high-profile student to be targeted by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel's war on Gaza, plans to sustain his criticism of the university for what activists consider Columbia's capitulation to Trump administration demands to curb antisemitic speech and threats against Jewish students on campus. 'If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,' Khalil said after shortly after landing in New Jersey on Saturday. 'I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.' Khalil was sent to Jena, Louisiana, shortly after being seized by plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in the lobby of his university residence in front of his heavily pregnant wife, who is a US citizen, in early March. The 30-year-old, who has not been charged with a crime, was forced to miss the birth of his first child, Deen, by the Trump administration. Khalil had been permitted to see his wife and son briefly – and only once – earlier in June. The American green card holder was held by Ice for 104 days. Khalil was ordered to surrender his passport and green card to Ice officials in Jena, Louisiana, as part of his conditional release. The order also limits Khalil's travel to a handful of US states, including New York and Michigan to visit family, for court hearings in Louisiana and New Jersey, and for lobbying in Washington DC. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx Democrat, said Khalil's ordeal was 'not over, and we will have to continue to support this case. The persecution based on political speech is wrong, and it is a violation of all of our first amendment rights, not just Mahmoud's.' The Trump administration has said it will appeal the order to release Khalil. 'This is yet another example of how out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security,' Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant homeland security secretary, said in a statement. 'Their conduct not only denies the result of the 2024 election, it also does great harm to our constitutional system by undermining public confidence in the courts.' The Trump administration claims it had the authority to detain and deport Khalil, arguing that his presence in the US is a threat to national security. A second charge alleges that he omitted details about his work history and membership in organizations on his green card application. Nina Lakhani contributed reporting
The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Australian government backs US strikes on Iran but urges ‘peaceful settlement from here'
Australia supports the US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and maintains the latter nation must not be allowed to possess atomic weapons, foreign affairs minister Penny Wong says, calling for Tehran to return to negotiations. But while Wong has refused to say whether the communications facility at Pine Gap was used in the American bombing of three Iranian sites, she said it was a 'unilateral strike' from the Trump administration, and that the US has not yet asked Australia to get involved in any future military engagement. 'The world has long understood we cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This action is being taken to prevent that. So, we support action to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon,' Wong told Channel Nine. Nearly 24 hours after US president Donald Trump said American strikes had 'totally obliterated' key Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, the Albanese government on Monday gave its first endorsement of the action, after a statement on Sunday from an unnamed government spokesperson noted the strikes. Fellow senior minister, Tanya Plibersek, told Channel Seven: 'We do support the strikes'. 'We certainly don't want to see full-scale war in the Middle East. It is a very delicate and different time, and we would encourage Iran to come back to the negotiating table,' she said. The federal Coalition backed the strikes and accused Labor of being 'too ambiguous' in its response to the major escalation in the Middle East conflict; but international law experts described the federal government's response as 'pretty weak', saying the American strikes were illegal and that Australia should stand up for the 'red lines of international law'. Anthony Albanese told 2GB radio he would speak on the Iran matter on Monday, following a meeting of the national security committee of cabinet. Asked on the ABC whether Australia believed the strikes were in accordance with international law, she did not directly respond, but said the US bombing had targeted Iran's nuclear program. 'The world has long agreed that Iran is not in compliance with its international obligations when it comes to nuclear material. And the world has long agreed that it is not in the interest of collective peace and security for Iran to gain access to any nuclear weapon,' she said. Wong rebuffed suggestions the government had been slow to respond. She again called for 'de-escalation and diplomacy' rather than further ratcheting up. 'And that's not just words, it's a view about the risk to the people of the region and to the world, to global instability. If we see escalation and a full-scale war. We do not want to see that,' she told Nine. Coalition acting shadow foreign minister Andrew Hastie said the opposition backed the US strikes and also called for dialogue. 'We want to see a peaceful settlement from here. And I'm just not going to speculate on what steps might be taken next,' he told Radio National. On Channel Nine, Wong was asked if the joint Australian-US communications facility at Pine Gap, in the Northern Territory, had been used in planning or carrying out the strikes. She replied: 'You wouldn't expect me to comment on intelligence matters ever'. 'But what I would say is, the US has made it clear this was a unilateral strike.' Wong also said the US had not requested Australian assistance in future military operations, and that she 'wouldn't speculate.' 'I again would say we are concerned, as are so many people around the world about continued escalation. No one wants to see full-scale war in the Middle East.' Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce told Sunrise he was concerned about further escalation in the region. 'This could go south in the most tremendous way for Australia and I did see a sense of gloating and hubris from the United States,' he told Seven's Sunrise show on Monday. 'That is alright if it is the end of the game, but if this takes the next step we are all going to be involved.' Former ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos said he believed there was 'no way we would put troops on the ground.' 'I don't think the government or the political establishment here are suggesting that we just follow whatever the US is going to do,' he told AAP. Wong again urged Australians in Iran and Israel to leave if they can do so safely, saying in a doorstop around 2900 Australians in Iran and 1300 in Israel had registered for assistance. She said Australian officials have been deployed to the Azerbaijani border, and if Australians can travel there, they would be helped; and that the government was hoping to take advantage of a possible opening of Israeli airspace. 'Obviously, this is very fluid, but we are seeking to make arrangements to utilise that window, if we are able. And we have advised Australians on the ground of that fact,' she said. 'We are seeking to utilise this opportunity, but the situation on the ground is uncertain and valid and risky.'
BBC News
43 minutes ago
- BBC News
Chris Mason: The UK's position on Iran is clear but will the US listen?
The prime minister has spoken to President Trump in the aftermath of America's attacks on in the end, the call beforehand demanding a yes or no answer didn't is not to say it might not in the days and weeks to British government is making it known that while it was told in advance what Washington was about to do, it didn't take part and wasn't asked so there wasn't a call from President Trump asking the prime minister whether the UK would be involved, for instance via authorising US warplanes to use the UK military base at on Diego Garcia in the Indian repeatedly pressed publicly for "de-escalation" as Sir Keir Starmer puts it, and questions seemingly being raised privately within government about the legality of getting involved, saying yes to a request for help from the White House might have been saying no would have been difficult too, after months of assiduous effort put into developing a good relationship with President acting alone and choosing to send its planes direct from America meant that massive, binary decision from Sir Keir wasn't depending if, how and when Iran chooses to retaliate, some of these trade-offs could soon return. For now, though, how should the UK's approach be assessed?In short, the government wills the ends America is pursuing, but is conspicuously not endorsing the other words, it doesn't want a nuclear armed neither is it saying it supports Washington's means of trying to remove that outcome - bombing Tehran's nuclear Conservatives see this as equivocation and "moral cowardice".On Friday, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy, alongside France, Germany and the European Union, met Iran's Foreign Minister in Geneva, Switzerland - but President Trump was publicly dismissive of these efforts.A day or so later, and the attacks they did, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Lammy by had met a few days earlier in foreign secretary has again spoken to his Iranian opposite number Abbas UK is encouraging Iran to talk directly to the has been making it clear for days that it won't talk to America while it is being hit by the Lammy has also spoken to the Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, pressing the case for a diplomatic solution and to the foreign ministers of Egypt and Cyprus - and then spoke again to UK position, for now at least, is clear - the government believes a diplomatic solution from here on in is the best way to secure an Iran free of nuclear weapons into the long America chose not to listen to this argument from London, Paris, Berlin and elsewhere before its air question is whether it will now they have can expect a minister, probably the foreign secretary, to face questions on all this in the Commons on Monday on Tuesday the prime minister, President Trump and plenty of other Western leaders will gather in the Netherlands for the annual summit of the Nato military alliance. They will have plenty to discuss. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
