Trump doubles down on 'monumental damage' to Iran nuclear sites; impact of US strikes still unconfirmed
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump insisted on Sunday (Jun 22) that US strikes had destroyed Iranian nuclear sites, after other officials cautioned that the extent of damage was still unclear.
"Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term!" Trump wrote on social media, without sharing the images he was referencing.
"The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!" he added.
Commercial satellite imagery indicates the US attack on Iran's Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged - and possibly destroyed - the deeply buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but there was no confirmation, experts said on Sunday.
"They just punched through with these MOPs," said David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, referring to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs that the US said it dropped. "I would expect that the facility is probably toast."
But confirmation of the below-ground destruction could not be determined, noted Decker Eveleth, an associate researcher with the CNA Corporation who specialises in satellite imagery. The hall containing hundreds of centrifuges is "too deeply buried for us to evaluate the level of damage based on satellite imagery", he said.
To defend against attacks such as the one conducted by US forces early on Sunday, Iran buried much of its nuclear programme in fortified sites deep underground, including into the side of a mountain at Fordow.
Satellite images show six holes where the bunker-busting bombs appear to have penetrated the mountain, and then ground that looks disturbed and covered in dust.
The United States and Israel have said they intend to halt Tehran's nuclear programme. But a failure to completely destroy its facilities and equipment could mean Iran could more easily restart the weapons programme that US intelligence and the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say it shuttered in 2003.
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