Satellite images show Iran expanding Fardo nuclear facility after US bombed the site last week

Mint

4 hours ago

New satellite images showed Iranian construction crews and heavy machinery at the Fordo nuclear facility five days after the US carried out massive strikes at Tehran's three nuclear sites.
According to a report by The New York Post, images captured by Maxar Technologies on Friday showed crews operated excavators, bulldozers, and other construction vehicles near the craters and punctures in the ground above the nuclear facility caused by the GBU-57 bunker buster bombs dropped by American B-2s last weekend.
The report also said that some satellite images showed apparent construction crews building access roads to the facility and rebuilding the damaged dirt road that led to the bunker laboratory that was targeted by the US as part of Israel's conflict with Iran.
Similar construction activity was seen on the surface of the Fardo nuclear site in images from before the US attack. 'Those vehicles appeared to be moving unidentified contents out of the facility to a location roughly half-a-mile away,' the report added.
The United Nation's nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that Fordo's centrifuges are currently 'no longer operational' and the facility has 'suffered enormous damage'.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said 'there is very, very, very considerable damage', the report added. The extent of the destruction — and the amount of time the Iranian regime's program has been set back — have yet to be officially determined.
The Trump administration on Thursday insisted the operation had been a total success, berating journalists for having reported on an intelligence assessment that took a more conservative line.
President Donald Trump "created the conditions to end the war, decimating – choose your word – obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities", Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told journalists at the Pentagon.
Earlier this week however, US media reported on a leaked preliminary US intelligence assessment that said the strikes had only set back Iran's nuclear programme by months – coverage sharply criticised by Hegseth and others.
The Israeli military has said it had delivered a "significant hit" to Iran's nuclear programme.
While it said its attacks had delayed the programme "by several years" it also said it was "still early to assess the results of the operation".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a "historic victory" in the 12-day conflict and vowed to thwart "any attempt" by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme, according to an AFP report.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has hailed what he described as Iran's "victory" over Israel.
"The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways," Khamenei said, insisting the strikes had done "nothing significant" to Iran's nuclear infrastructure, the report added.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi however called the damage "serious" and said a detailed assessment was under way.
Doubts remain about whether Iran quietly removed more than 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 per cent from its most sensitive sites before the strikes – to hide it elsewhere in the country.
The stockpile could in theory produce more than nine atomic bombs – if the enrichment level were raised to 90 per cent.
A Khamenei adviser, Ali Shamkhani, has said that the country still had its stockpile.
"Even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn't over, enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain," he said in a post on X.
(With inputs from agencies)