Latest news with #USAttack
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Key parts of Iran's nuclear program still intact, says Pentagon report disputed by Trump
WASHINGTON — The core components of Iran's nuclear program appear to remain intact after the June 21 U.S. attack, according to a U.S. official who has been briefed on the Defense Intelligence Agency's initial assessment. President Donald Trump and members of his administration have stated that Iran's nuclear program had been 'obliterated' in the airstrikes and have cast doubt on the report's conclusions. The report was based on intercepted communications and other intelligence sources in the 96 hours after the U.S. attack spearheaded by U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers dropping the world's most potent conventional weapon – the 30,000-pound, bunker-busting GBU-57. The U.S. attack, which included submarine-launched cruise missiles, caused extensive damage to infrastructure on the surface, according to the source who discussed the report's findings on condition of anonymity. Less certain is the amount of damage that was done Iran's deeply-buried nuclear facilities. But intelligence sources indicate that some of the Iranian nuclear program's core components – its centrifuges and enriched uranium – remain intact, the report found. The attack set back Iran's quest to create a nuclear weapon anywhere from six to 12 months, the source said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a statement, dismissed the contention that Iran's nuclear program as politically motivated. 'Based on everything we have seen — and I've seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons," Hegseth said. "Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target — and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the president and the successful mission.' CNN first reported findings of the Pentagon intelligence agency's report. The bombs hit two key Iranian nuclear facilities – Fordow and Natanz – on June 21. A third facility, Isfahan, was struck by Tomahawk missiles fired from a U.S. Navy submarine, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the next morning. An assessment of the damage would take some time, he said. Trump dug in on his dismissal of the assessment's findings in his comments at a NATO summit in the Netherlands on June 25, comparing the impact of the strikes to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. "It's destroyed," he said of Iran's nuclear program. Hegseth has said there was "low confidence" in the assessment, which was produced by the Pentagon's intelligence agency. But the official briefed on the report said only portions of the report were labeled low confidence. More: War of words? Trump hints at changing name of Defense Department "If you want to make an assessment of what happened at Fordow, you better get a big shovel and go really deep, because Iran's nuclear program is obliterated," he said. Some researchers and experts have disputed the intelligence assessment's conclusions that Iran's nuclear program is mostly intact. David Albright, president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, said in a social media post the DIA report is "hard to believe." Fordow "is likely severely damaged or destroyed" and Natanz "is likely destroyed and knocked out of operation" following the U.S. strikes, according to a report from the institute. At Isfahan, the main uranium conversion facility was "severely damaged" and tunnel entrances were collapsed, the report found. Trump also brushed aside concerns voiced by nuclear officials and experts over whether Iran was able to move its nuclear equipment beforehand and what happened to the enriched uranium stored in tunnels deep underground. "We think we hit them so hard and so fast, they didn't get to move," he said. Israel's military said on June 23 it had bombed routes to the Fordow facility to prevent Iran from removing any material. Trump has taken a victory lap over a ceasefire between Israel and Iran that put an end to 12 days of traded aerial strikes between the two countries. "We think it's over," he said at the NATO summit. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Key parts of Iran's nuclear program still intact: Pentagon assessment
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A week of shifting descriptions of Iran attack spark ongoing questions
A week after President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. attack on three Iranian nuclear sites, the explanations and descriptions of what happened voiced by him, top aides and early intelligence reports paint contrasting pictures of the extent of the damage to Iran's nuclear program. While the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly claimed that Iran's nuclear program has been "obliterated," preliminary assessments — including from the Pentagon's own intelligence wing — painted an evolving picture as the week went on. Trump said he ordered the attack on June 21 to strike a uranium enrichment site located in 300 feet deep in a mountain in Fordo in northwestern Iran, an uranium enrichment site in Natanz and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center following reports that Iranian officials failed to comply with international nuclear regulations. And as those early damage assessments cast doubt on the extent to which Iran nuclear program was crippled, several of Trump's top aides and allied lawmakers also appeared to scale back the stated goals of the attack. Here are some of the accounts and characterizations over the last week. On Sunday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump's statement from Saturday night, just after the strikes, that the sites had been "obliterated." MORE: 'Way too early' to know full damage done to Iran nuclear sites, Joint Chiefs chairman says "It was clear we devastated the Iranian nuclear program," he added. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, however, declined to go as far, saying it would take more time to assess the extent of the damage done. Hegseth acknowledged that damage assessment was ongoing but stuck by the description he and Trump were using. "All of our precision munitions struck where we wanted them to strike and had the desired effect, which means especially the primary target here, we believe we achieved destruction of capabilities there," he said. Officials and inspectors from outside Iran have not been able to gain direct access to the bombed sites to make a first-hand assessment. MORE: Centrifuges at Fordow nuclear facility 'suffered a great deal,' IAEA director says Trump officials had a more nuanced take after news reports surfaced Tuesday about an initial Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that said the attack set back Iran's nuclear program only by months. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the leaks of the military's report but did not go as far as to claim that the sites were obliterated. Instead, he insisted that "very significant, substantial damage was done" to key components of Iran's nuclear program, "and we're just learning more about it." At the same time, Rubio provided more details about the attack, including that the bunker-buster bombs were dropped on ventilation shafts leading deep inside Fordo's heavily fortified facility -- buried, officials and experts said, 200 to 300 feet inside a mountain. He ultimately acknowledged that it was difficult to get a read on damage inflicted to Fordo at this point, but asserted "the bottom line is real damage was done." That same day, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claimed in a statement that the three facilities were destroyed. The director general of the U.N.'s nuclear oversight agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said Wednesday that he believed some of Iran's enriched uranium had been moved from the sites before the attacks. Trump refuted that analysis. "It would have taken two weeks, maybe. But it's very hard to remove that kind of material, very hard and very dangerous. Plus, they knew we were coming, and if they know we're coming, they're not going to be down there," he said Wednesday. Trump reiterated that the sites and the uranium were buried under rubble and inaccessible, adding that trucks seen in satellite images at the plant before the attack -- which some speculated could have been used to move the nuclear material -- were construction vehicles being used to cover the ventilation shaft openings with protective concrete. According to the two people familiar with the DIA's classified report, the bombing sealed off the entrances to two of the three nuclear sites targeted in the attack but most of the damage was done to structures above ground, leaving the lower structures intact. The assessment also found that at least some enriched uranium remained – possibly moved from the nuclear sites ahead of the blasts. The next day, on Thursday, Hegseth held a news conference where he slammed the news media over reporting but did not make the same assessment on the nuclear materials. Asked twice during the briefing if he could be more definitive about whether the enriched uranium was moved before the attack, Hegseth said the Pentagon was "watching every aspect." At that same Thursday briefing, Caine noted it's not his job to assess the damage, saying, "We don't grade our own homework." Hegseth also highlighted what appeared to be a different goal of the mission, arguing the attack had succeeded because it led to stopping the fighting between Iran and Israel — rather than the facilities' destruction because it destroyed Iran's nuclear program. "We got that peace, that ceasefire, that option because of strength, because of [Trump's] willingness to use American military might that no one else on the planet can do with the kind of planners and operators that the chairman just laid out," he said. Then, on Friday, Trump echoed that sentiment. "They put out that fire once that happened, once those bombs got dropped out, that war was over," he said. Still, the president claimed again that the sites were obliterated during a news conference. MORE: Secrets on Iran nuclear strike spill into open as Pentagon defends bombing "We finished them off," he said, adding, "I don't believe that they're going to go back into nuclear anytime soon." Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister said on Iranian State TV Thursday, however, the facilities were not destroyed and his country will have leverage in negotiations. On Capitol Hill on Thursday, after administration officials gave lawmakers a classified briefing on the strikes, Republican lawmakers acknowledged that the U.S. strikes may not have destroyed Iran's cache of enriched uranium. But they said that wasn't part of the mission. "The purpose of the mission was to eliminate certain particular aspects of their nuclear program. Those were eliminated. To get rid of the nuclear material was not part of the mission,' Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told CNN. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the "program was obliterated at those three sites," but added, "I don't know where the 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium exists. But it wasn't part of the targets there."
Japan Times
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Iran would strike back if attacked, supreme leader says
Iran would respond to any future U.S. attack by striking American military bases in the Middle East, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday in his first televised remarks since a ceasefire was reached between Iran and Israel. Khamenei, 86, claimed victory after 12 days of war, culminating in an Iranian attack on the largest U.S. base in the region, located in Qatar, after Washington joined the Israeli strikes. "The Islamic Republic slapped America in the face. It attacked one of the important American bases in the region," Khamenei said. As in his last comments, released more than a week ago during the Israeli bombardment, he spoke from an undisclosed indoor location in front of a brown curtain, between an Iranian flag and a portrait of his predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini. In his prerecorded remarks, aired on state television, Khamenei promised that Iran would not surrender despite U.S. President Donald Trump's calls. "The U.S. President Trump unveiled the truth and made it clear that Americans won't be satisfied with anything less than surrender ... such an event will never happen," Khamenei said. "The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to important American centers in the region and can take action against them whenever it deems necessary is not a small incident, it is a major incident, and this incident can be repeated in the future if an attack is made," he added. Trump said "sure" on Wednesday when asked if the United States would strike again if Iran rebuilt its nuclear enrichment program. Tehran has for decades denied accusations by Western leaders that it is seeking nuclear arms. Khamenei said the U.S. "gained no achievement" after it attacked Iranian nuclear sites, but that it entered the war to "save" Israel after Tehran's missiles broke through Israel's multilayered defense system. "The U.S. directly entered the war as it felt that if it did not get involved, the Zionist regime (Israel) would be fully destroyed. It entered the war to save it," he said. "The U.S. attacked our nuclear facilities, but couldn't do any important deed ... The U.S. president did abnormal showmanship and needed to do so," he added. Trump said over the weekend that the U.S. deployment of 30,000-pound bombs had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program. However, this appeared to be contradicted by an initial assessment from one of his administration's intelligence agencies, according to three people familiar with the matter. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also declared "a historic victory" on Tuesday, after the fragile ceasefire took effect, saying Israel had achieved its goal of removing Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile threat. Shortly after Khamenei's speech, Netanyahu posted a message with a picture of himself and Trump holding hands with the message: "We will continue to work together to defeat our common enemies."
Telegraph
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Hegseth: Iran did not move uranium before strikes
Pete Hegseth said he had not 'seen any information' which suggested Iran moved its enriched uranium before it was bombed by the United States. Giving an extraordinary scolding to the 'fake news media' over its reporting of a leaked assessment of the strikes' damage, the defence secretary hinted the US attack had successfully buried the bomb making material. His comments came despite intelligence suggesting that the country had transported 400kg of highly-enriched uranium from the nuclear base of Fordow to an unknown, safe location in the days before the attack. At least two European capitals' intelligence assessments suggested the stockpile was moved, according to the Financial Times. Two Israeli officials with knowledge of the intelligence told The New York Times that Iran had transferred equipment and uranium outside Fordow in recent days. Seven B-2 bombers flew from American soil to drop their massive bunker-busting bombs on the heavily fortified facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan during Operation Midnight Hammer on Saturday. The White House has spent days pushing back on leaks from the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), which implied Iran's nuclear programme had not been destroyed but set back by only a few months. Security sources had said that an early assessment concluded Iran had removed nuclear material from its underground Fordow facility ahead of the weekend strikes. Speaking during a press conference at the Pentagon, Mr Hegseth praised the US attack on Iran but offered few details on the strikes' impact. 'I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be moved or otherwise,' Mr Hegseth said, after dodging two earlier questions. 'There's nothing that I've seen that suggests that what we didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit in those locations.' Shortly after, in a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump echoed Mr Hegseth's comments. Referring to satellite imagery which appeared to show a number of trucks outside of Fordow, apparently transporting the uranium, Mr Trump said: 'The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. 'Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!' Mr Hegseth spent much of the conference berating the press over its reporting of the strikes, saying the media 'breathlessly' focusing on an early assessment from the DIA which suggested little damage had been done, while offering little detail on the impact of the assault. '[You] cheer against Trump because you want him not to be successful so bad,' he said. 'You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes. You have to hope maybe they weren't effective, maybe the way the Trump administration has represented them isn't true. 'So let's take half-truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it, spin it in every way we can, to try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public mind over whether or not our brave pilots were successful.' Since the leak, findings by the CIA and United Nations have suggested Tehran's nuclear sites were severely destroyed and its programme set back years. The White House now plans to limit classified intelligence sharing with Congress to avoid future breaches to the press, according to the Washington Post. The briefing also included details on the preparation for the strike, which was conducted by pilots who flew 36 hours from Missouri. Meanwhile General Dan Caine, the joint chiefs of staff chairman, recounted the retaliatory Iranian missile attacks on a US military base in Qatar. He said roughly 44 American service members responsible for defending the entire base were present as rounds of Patriot missiles were launched. 'How many stories have been written about how hard it is to, I don't know, fly a plane for 36 hours. Has MSNBC done that story? Has Fox?,' Mr Hegseth added. The president appeared to be monitoring the news conference, posting about it on social media, writing: 'Watch it!' He also suggested the media outlets reporting on the intelligence assessment 'will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories.' Mr Trump has been fixated on coverage of the US strikes, which could determine how American voters view his decision to get involved in the latest war in the Middle East.
The Guardian
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Khamenei says Iran will strike back if US hits again, in first remarks since ceasefire
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to respond to any future US attack by striking American military bases in the Middle East, in his first public comments since a ceasefire with Israel was declared. The 86-year-old, who has not been seen in public since taking shelter in a secret location after the outbreak of the war on 13 June, said his country had 'delivered a slap to America's face' – a reference to an Iranian missile attack on a US base in Qatar on Monday, which caused no casualties
