US has struck 3 Iranian nuclear sites, Trump says

By SAM MEDNICK, AAMER MADHANI and DAVID RISING, Related Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — President Donald Trump mentioned Saturday that america army struck three websites in Iran, immediately becoming a member of Israel’s effort to decapitate the nation’s nuclear program in a dangerous gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s risk of reprisals that might spark a wider regional battle.

There was no rapid acknowledgment from the Iranian authorities of any strikes being carried out. The nation’s state-run IRNA information company early Sunday reported an assault on the nation’s Fordo nuclear website that activated air defenses. The company didn’t elaborate.

The choice to immediately contain the U.S. within the struggle comes after greater than per week of strikes by Israel on Iran that aimed to systematically eradicate the nation’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, whereas damaging its nuclear enrichment services. However U.S. and Israeli officers have mentioned that American stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb they alone can carry provided the perfect probability of destroying closely fortified websites related to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.

“We’ve got accomplished our very profitable assault on the three Nuclear websites in Iran, together with Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump mentioned in a publish on social media. “All planes at the moment are exterior of Iran air house. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the first website, Fordow. All planes are safely on their method dwelling.”

Trump added in a later publish that he would deal with the nation at 10 p.m. ET, writing “That is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!”

Trump mentioned B-2 stealth bombers have been used however didn’t specify what forms of bombs have been dropped. The White Home and Pentagon didn’t instantly elaborate on the operation.

The strikes are a dangerous determination, as Iran has pledged to retaliate if the U.S. joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally. He received the White Home on the promise of protecting America out of expensive international conflicts and scoffed on the worth of American interventionism.

Trump instructed reporters Friday that he was not concerned about sending floor forces into Iran, saying it’s “the very last thing you wish to do.” He had beforehand indicated that he would make a last selection over the course of two weeks.

Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned america on Wednesday that strikes focusing on the Islamic Republic will “end in irreparable injury for them.” And Iranian Overseas Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention could be a recipe for an all-out struggle within the area.”

Trump has vowed that he wouldn’t enable Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and he had initially hoped that the specter of pressure would carry the nation’s leaders to surrender its nuclear program peacefully.

The Israeli army mentioned Saturday it was making ready for the potential of a prolonged struggle, whereas Iran’s international minister warned earlier than the U.S. assault that American army involvement “could be very, very harmful for everybody.”

The prospect of a wider struggle loomed. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen mentioned they’d resume assaults on U.S. vessels within the Crimson Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel’s army marketing campaign. The Houthis paused such assaults in Could beneath a cope with the U.S.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel introduced the U.S. had begun “assisted departure flights,” the primary from Israel because the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the struggle in Gaza.

White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned Thursday that Trump deliberate to make his determination on the strikes inside two weeks. As a substitute, he struck simply two days later.

Trump seems to have made the calculation — on the prodding of Israeli officers and plenty of Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the bottom and introduced a maybe unparalleled alternative to set again Iran’s nuclear program, maybe completely.

The Israelis say their offensive has already crippled Iran’s air defenses, permitting them to already considerably degrade a number of Iranian nuclear websites.

However to destroy the Fordo nuclear gas enrichment plant, Israel appealed to Trump for the bunker-busting American bomb often called the GBU-57 Large Ordnance Penetrator, which makes use of its weight and sheer kinetic pressure to achieve deeply buried targets after which explode. The bomb is at the moment delivered solely by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is barely discovered within the American arsenal.

If deployed within the assault, it might be the primary fight use of the weapon.

The bomb carries a traditional warhead, and is believed to have the ability to penetrate about 200 toes beneath the floor earlier than exploding, and the bombs could be dropped one after one other, successfully drilling deeper and deeper with every successive blast.

The Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company has confirmed that Iran is producing extremely enriched uranium at Fordo, elevating the likelihood that nuclear materials could possibly be launched into the world if the GBU-57 A/B have been used to hit the power.

Earlier Israeli strikes at one other Iranian nuclear website, Natanz, on a centrifuge website have prompted contamination solely on the website itself, not the encompassing space, the IAEA has mentioned.

Trump’s determination for direct U.S. army intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — together with with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed toward persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

For months, Trump mentioned he was devoted to a diplomatic push to influence Iran to surrender its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and once more in late Could — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to carry off on army motion in opposition to Iran and provides diplomacy extra time.

The U.S. in latest days has been shifting army plane and warships into and across the Center East to guard Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian assaults.

All of the whereas, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the second could possibly be a “second probability” for Iran to make a deal to delivering specific threats on Khamenei and making requires Tehran’s unconditional give up.

“We all know precisely the place the so-called ‘Supreme Chief’ is hiding,” Trump mentioned in a social media posting. “He’s a straightforward goal, however is protected there – We aren’t going to take him out (kill!), no less than not for now.”

The army showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered settlement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, U.S. and different world powers, created a long-term, complete nuclear settlement that restricted Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in alternate for the lifting of financial sanctions.

Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran an excessive amount of in return for too little, as a result of the settlement didn’t cowl Iran’s non-nuclear malign habits.

Trump has bristled at criticism from a few of his MAGA trustworthy, together with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who’ve recommended that additional U.S. involvement could be a betrayal to supporters who have been drawn to his promise to finish U.S. involvement in costly and countless wars.

Initially Revealed: June 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM MDT