Latest news with #AmericanWarriors
Khaleej Times
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
'No radioactive effects' detected in Gulf, says Saudi after US strikes on Iran
[Editor's Note: Follow our live blog for real-time updates on the latest developments in the Israel-Iran conflict.] Saudi Arabia said 'no radioactive effects' were detected in the Gulf after US launched strikes on Iran during the early hours of Sunday, June 22. US forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites in a "very successful attack," President Donald Trump said earlier, adding that the crown jewel of Tehran's nuclear program, Fordow, is gone. After days of deliberation and two weeks before his self-imposed deadline, Trump's decision to join Israel's military campaign against its major rival Iran represents a major escalation of the conflict. "This was an amazing success tonight," Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview."They should make peace immediately or they'll get hit again." He had earlier posted on Truth Social that all US planes were safely on their way home, and he congratulated "our great American Warriors." Saudi Arabia
Roya News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Roya News
US strikes three nuclear sites in Iran; Trump says now 'TIME FOR PEACE'
President Donald Trump said Saturday the US military has carried out a "very successful attack" on three Iranian nuclear sites, including the underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordo. "We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow." Trump added that "all planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors." Trump's announcement came just two days after he said he would decide "within two weeks" whether to join key ally 'Israel' in attacking Iran. Earlier on Saturday there were reports that US B-2 bombers – which carry so-called "bunker buster" bombs – were headed out of the United States. Trump did not say what kind of US planes or munitions were involved, but a US official told Reuters that B-2 stealth bombers were used. Tehran had threatened reprisals on US forces in the Middle East if Trump attacked but the US president called for "peace."
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump: US launches strike on three nuclear sites in Iran
President Donald Trump said the U.S. had acheived a "spectacular military success" in bombing three Iranian nuclear sites on June 21. "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said in a live address, threatening further strikes if Tehran did not agree to U.S. terms. He said Tehran's nuclear program was a "horribly destructive enterprise." Trump earlier in the evening announced U.S. airstrikes on Iranian uranium enrichment sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan, writing on Truth Social on June 21 that "All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow." More: U.S. hits Iran nuclear facilities, braces for counterattack The U.S. and its regional allies braced for possible Iranian retaliation as different members of Congress condemned and celebrated the attack. The conflict began a week ago when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear and military sites, targeting uranium enrichment facilities. The two countries have been engaged in aerial strikes and Trump had been pondering U.S. involvement for the past week. "Congratulations to our great American Warriors," Trump wrote. "There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!" Terror alert levels should be elevated in the near term, even in major cities outside the Middle East and anywhere Iran may have sleeper cells, said Andrew Borene, a former senior official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center. 'What happens next is largely going to be driven by Tehran's next moves. Their shadow wars have never been confined to missiles, drones, and cyber attacks,' said Borene, who is now executive director for Global Security at private intelligence firm Flashpoint. Borene said in an analysis that there is 'a real risk of further spillover if Iran resorts to its historical use of asymmetric means through proxy terrorism.' Offensive cyber operations on critical infrastructure, or terrorist attacks by Iranian proxies, also could rapidly derail hope for de-escalation and diplomacy in the near term, Borene said. -Josh Meyer 'There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,' Trump said. He noted that there are many other targets in Iran. 'If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes,' he said. -Sarah Wire 'Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,' Trump said in his address to the nation. 'If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.' He then described tactics of the regime. 'For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America,' 'Death to Israel,'' he said. 'They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty.' The president appeared to be referring to attacks launched by Iran-backed militants in the years after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. -Erin Mansfield Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised President Trump for bombing three Iran nuclear sites, saying the decision could lead the Middle East toward a future of 'prosperity and peace.' 'America has been truly unsurpassed,' Netanyahu said in a video statement. 'It has done what no other country on earth could do. History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime the world's most dangerous weapons.' -Erin Mansfield Fordow is an Iranian underground uranium enrichment facility located about 80 to 90 meters deep inside a mountain, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. More: US bombs Iran: What to know about possible weapon, the 'bunker buster' It is located 20 miles north of the Iranian city of Qom. Fordow was one of three nuclear sites, including Natanz and Esfahan, that were struck by US military operations on July 21 to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. "A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow," Trump wrote on Truth Social. -Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy B-2 bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri in the early morning hours of June 21. The warplanes are known not only for their stealth technology, but also for their ability to fly long-range and carry the big 'bunker buster' bombs used in the June 21 mission. With design and materials that limit its ability to be detected by enemy radar, the B-2 is thought to be the only aircraft equipped to carry the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or GBU-57, known as the "bunker buster." The entire fleet of B-2 stealth bombers is based at Whiteman, southeast of Kansas City, with the 509th Bomb Wing, part of the Air Force Global Strike Command. Fox News reported six bunker-buster bombs were dropped on Iran's Fordo nuclear site. -Dinah Pulver The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war. The president is the commander in chief of the military, which means he carries out wars that Congress approves. However, presidents of both political partes have perennially used the U.S. military to bomb or invade countries without formal approval from Congress. There have even been allegations that the Korean War and the Vietnam War were illegal. Congress attempted to limit presidents from using this type of power when it passed the 1973 War Powers Act. Trump was most recently criticized for potentially violating the War Powers Act when he bombed the Houthis in Yemen, notoriously discussed on the SignalGate chat that embarrassed top officials in his administration. -Erin Mansfield B-2 bombers conducted a series of strikes on targets in Iran, according to a senior Defense Department official. There were no casualties. Measures to protect the nearly 40,000 U.S. troops in the region have been incrementally increased over the last two weeks, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The Army has been at third of four levels of alert at most places in the region, the official said. -Tom Vanden Brook More: U.S. hits Iran nuclear facilities, braces for counterattack President Trump posted on Truth Social that he will be speaking to the nation at 10 p.m. ET on June 21. "I will be giving an Address to the Nation at 10:00 P.M., at the White House, regarding our very successful military operation in Iran," Trump wrote. "This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!" -Swapna Venugopal Trump's decision came under immediate criticism from at least one Republican in Congress: Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian who represents Kentucky. Massie shared Trump's post on social media with the message, 'This is not Constitutional.' Massie had previously introduced a bill to prevent Trump from going to war with Iran without congressional authorization, which drew cosponsors that included progressive Democrats such as Rep. Ro Khanna of California. The GOP lawmaker was one of two members of Trump's political party who voted against his tax bill in the House of Representatives last month. Trump called him a 'grandstander' ahead of the vote and said he should be 'voted out of office.' Far-right GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of Trump's, publicly pushed for the U.S. to stay out of the war, a half hour before Trump announced the attack. 'Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war,' she said in a post on X. Greene has been one of the most outspoken opponent's within MAGA of American military involvement in the conflict that exploded on June 13 when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear sites. 'There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first,' she said on June 21. 'Israel is a nuclear armed nation. This is not our fight. Peace is the answer.' –Francesca Chambers Earlier in the day, the State Department began evacuating American citizens and permanent residents from Israel and the West Bank, U.S Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced on social media. 'The Department of State has begun assisted departure flights from Israel,' Huckabee wrote in a post on X on June 21 asking people seeking government assistance to fill out a form. -Swapna Venugopal The strikes followed days of Israeli bomb and drone strikes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aimed at disrupting Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon, to which Iran responded by launching missiles at Israeli civilian targets. Netanyahu had been pressing President Donald Trump to enter the war, knowing the Pentagon possesses the ability to destroy Iran's nuclear enrichment capability. In his first term, Trump pulled out of the Iran deal brokered by President Barack Obama in 2015, saying it did not do enough to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. As the war between Iran and Israel has spiraled in recent days, he has repeated that Iran "cannot" get a nuclear weapon. Iran has threatened that the U.S. would suffer "irreparable damage" if it becomes directly involved in the conflict. The U.S. "should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage," Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on June 18. The U.S. Air Force has the unique capability to destroy deeply buried, fortified structures like those that house Iran's nuclear facilities. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or GBU-57, has a 'high-performance steel alloy' warhead case that allows the weapon to stay intact as it burrows deep into the ground, according to Pentagon documents. In 2012, the Air Force conducted five tests of the weapon at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Data and visual inspections showed that each bombing run 'effectively prosecuted the targets.' There's only one warplane in the Air Force that can carry the bomb. Each B-2 Spirit stealth bomber based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri can hold two of the penetrators. Israel had sought the Pentagon to drop the bombs because their penetrating weapons cannot reach the depth necessary to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. -Tom Vanden Brook This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump: US launches strike on three nuclear sites in Iran
New York Times
7 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Live Updates: Trump Claims Success After Bombing Key Iran Nuclear Sites
President Trump announced on Saturday that the U.S. military had bombed three of Iran's nuclear sites, including its uranium-enrichment facility deep underground at Fordo, injecting the United States directly into a war in the Middle East. The president made the announcement on his social media website, Truth Social, shortly before 8 p.m. in Washington. 'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space,' the president wrote. 'A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!' The bombing came two days after the White House said Mr. Trump would make a decision 'within two weeks' about whether to move ahead with such an attack. Israeli officials were told about the bombing beforehand, and Mr. Trump spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel afterward, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Trump said he would address the nation on Saturday night from the White House at 10 p.m. It was not immediately clear how many bombs were dropped, or how much damage was caused to Iran's capacity to enrich uranium and potentially pursue a nuclear weapon. And Mr. Trump, who had been debating whether to join Israel's war against Iran, immediately suggested that a diplomatic resolution was still possible. But it was far from clear that Iran would be interested in that. Since making clear that he was considering striking Iran, Mr. Trump has faced pressure from Republican critics and supporters of such of a move, highlighting a split within his own party. Some advisers both inside and outside the White House tried to either dissuade him from carrying out a bombing raid and to stick only to providing Israel with support from the intelligence community. Others, accepting that he appeared determined to bomb the nuclear facilities, set their minds to making sure he had a full picture of the potential fallout from such an attack and to limit America's involvement after the initial strikes. For months, Vice President JD Vance has warned against the potential of a war aimed at regime change in Iran, and Mr. Trump has privately told advisers and associates in recent days that he has no interest in joining a prolonged war to topple Iran's leadership. Mr. Trump has said repeatedly that he does not want to send American troops into battle overseas. Even after Israel began its bombing campaign, Mr. Trump was encouraging Mr. Vance and his envoy, Steve Witkoff, to pursue diplomacy with Iran. The president has expressed frustration at Iranian officials and their slowness to respond to messages. And his team has complained that it's hard to know whether their Iranian interlocutors are speaking on behalf of the country's Supreme Leader. Now, the Trump team is bracing for Iranian retaliation. Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Trump in a June 9 phone call that he was determined to go ahead with an attack on Iran. Mr. Trump, who had been pushing for a nuclear deal with Iran for months, begrudgingly agreed to provide support from the intelligence community. But when Israel began its airstrikes on Iran, it was still unclear whether Mr. Trump would fully support its mission. When the Israeli strikes began on June 13, the first statement that came from the administration, from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, distanced America from the war and made no mention of standing with Israel — an extraordinary omission for an American administration. But by the next morning in the United States, when it appeared that Israel's first night of strikes had been a success, Mr. Trump began claiming credit for the operation and hinting to reporters that he had more to do with the mission than people realized. That weekend, as he prepared to leave for Canada for the G7 Summit, Mr. Trump said privately that he might need to drop 'the big one.' He was referring to the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs, carried by B-2 bombers, that only the U.S. military had in its possession. Mr. Trump built his political career in part on his denouncement of the war in Iraq following the deadly terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Yet one of the actions of which he was proudest in his first term was the assassination of the Gen. Qassim Suleimani of Iran, an act that alienated some of his staunchest anti-interventionist supporters but that he repeatedly maintained was necessary and in the United States' interests.
Fox News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump follows through: US hits Iran's nuclear sites ahead of national address
The U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear sites following President Donald Trump's order on Saturday, and he's expected to address the nation at 10 p.m. Eastern. The strike is the result of over a decade of the president saying that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. "IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR," Trump posted to Truth Social on Saturday night. "We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter," he said in another post. Despite previous media reporting that the Trump administration was open to allowing Iran to continue its uranium enrichment program, potentially allowing the development of Iranian nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump has taken a strong stance on the issue, repeatedly saying he would not allow the country to develop any nuclear weapons. Axios reported earlier this month that as part of a deal to ease U.S. sanctions offered to Iran by White House envoy Steve Witkoff, "would allow limited low-level uranium enrichment on Iranian soil for a to-be-determined period of time." This was something the outlet said risked backlash from Trump allies on Capitol Hill and in Israel. Shortly after the Axios story, Trump posted on Truth Social that "under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!" The AP reported that Trump's message "appeared to undercut a proposal that was offered" by his administration and that Witkoff and the president "have repeatedly offered inconsistent public messages about whether Iran would be allowed to retain the capacity to enrich uranium to lower levels for civilian purposes." Trump, however, has consistently said that he would not, under any circumstances, allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Dating back to 2011, Trump has gone on the record voicing his belief that Iran should not have access to nuclear weapons over three dozen times. As early as his 2011 book "Time to Get Tough," Trump said: "America's primary goal with Iran must be to destroy its nuclear ambitions. Let me put them as plainly as I know how: Iran's nuclear program must be stopped by any and all means necessary. Period. We cannot allow this radical regime to acquire a nuclear weapon that they will either use or hand off to terrorists." He has also made clear his stance that Iran should not even be allowed to further develop nuclear arms, saying in a 2011 tweet that "Iran's nuclear program must be stopped – by any and all means necessary." Then, after announcing his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump criticized President Barack Obama for negotiating "a disastrous deal with Iran," saying, "Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and, under a Trump Administration, will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon." Then again, in 2017, Trump was quoted by NPR saying, "We will deny the regime all paths to a nuclear weapon." On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump said repeatedly that nuclear ramping up is "the biggest risk we have." In an interview with Patrick Bet-David "the real threat isn't global warming. The real threat is -- threat is nuclear warming." Referring to Iran, he said, "They're very close to having a nuclear weapon," and "I wanted Iran to be very successful. I just don't want them to have a nuclear weapon." He also criticized former President Joe Biden, saying he "should never have allowed them to get this far. They're way -- they're way advanced now." While campaigning, Trump was recorded at least 34 times saying Iran should have no way of developing nuclear weapons, a Fox News Digital review of video shows. "They can't have a nuclear weapon. And now, they're very close to having one, and it's very dangerous for the world, very dangerous for the world. I mean, the biggest -- the biggest problem today, in my opinion, the biggest risk is the nuclear weapons, the weaponry. It's so powerful today," he said in a campaign rally in Milwaukee in October. "They're financing Hamas, and they're financing Hezbollah … they go around, saying, 'Death to Israel. Death to America.' And they chant it openly all over the place. Don't let Iran have nuclear weapons. That's my only thing I have to tell you today. Don't let them have it," he said at a campaign event in Clive, Iowa. Iran has repeatedly said it will not agree to a uranium enrichment ban, arguing it has the right to the process, which is also vital for nuclear energy.
