US air strikes hit the three main nuclear sites in Iran late on Saturday night, following days of warnings by US President Donald Trump.
The United States dropped 12 powerful bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility in the early hours of Sunday, local time, according to the New York Times.
The report stated that six B-2 stealth bombers carried out the strike, releasing a total of 12 bombs on the underground site. Following the airstrike, U.S. Navy submarines reportedly launched 30 cruise missiles targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz and Isfahan.
The US president stated that the bombings “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities saying that the strikes will continue unless Tehran agrees to peace. The sites attacked are Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.
So far, diplomacy has failed to stop the war between Israel and Iran. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Saturday’s strikes a “dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security.”
Iran had repeatedly threatened Israel with annihilation while it supports financially its proxy, Hamas, in the war against Israel, Israeli and Western intelligence reports say.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the US president on his “bold decision”, saying that “History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime, the world’s most dangerous weapons.”
Israel launched the attacks on Iran claiming that it wanted to eliminate any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons. Iran has replied that its nuclear program is for energy only.
The destruction of Fordow is seen as central to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found the site had enriched uranium to 83.7 percent – close to the 90 percent needed for nuclear weapons.
Israel appealed to Trump for US bunker-busting bombs, the 30,000lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The bomb can penetrate 200ft (61 meters) before exploding. It can be delivered only by the B-2 stealth bomber and only the US has it.
According to AP, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed the attacks, but it insisted that its work will not be stopped. Iran said there were no signs of radioactive contamination at the three locations and no danger to nearby residents.
Mohammad Manan Raisi, a lawmaker for Qom, near Fordow, told the semi-official Fars news agency the facility had not been seriously damaged, Reuters reports.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, warned in a post on X that the US attacks “will have everlasting consequences” and that Tehran “reserves all options” to retaliate.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations called for an emergency Security Council meeting to discuss what he described as the US “heinous attacks and illegal use of force” against Iran.
[This is a developing story]
