Trump claims 'successful' US strikes on Iran

US President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters
US President Donald Trump says a "very successful attack" has been successfully carried out on three nuclear sites in Iran, including at Fordow.
In a posting on Truth Social, Trump added, "All planes are safely on their way home" and he congratulated "our great American Warriors."
Trump ended his posting saying, "Now is the time for peace."
The action came as Israel and Iran have been engaged in more than a week of aerial combat that has resulted in deaths and injuries in both countries.
Israel launched the attacks on Iran saying that it wanted to remove any chance of Tehran developing nuclear weapons.
Iran has argued that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.
Diplomatic efforts by Western nations to stop the hostilities had so far been unsuccessful

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NZ Herald

7 hours ago

• NZ Herald

Donald Trump targets Iran's nuclear programme with B-2 bomber strikes

He is betting that the United States can repel whatever retaliation Iran's leadership orders against more than 40,000 US troops spread over bases throughout the region. All are within range of Tehran's missile fleet, even after eight days of relentless attacks by Israel. And he is betting that he can deter a vastly debilitated Iran from using its familiar techniques – terrorism, hostage-taking and cyber attacks – as a more indirect line of attack to wreak revenge. Most importantly, he is betting that he has destroyed Iran's chances of ever reconstituting its nuclear programme. That is an ambitious goal: Iran has made clear that, if attacked, it would exit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and take its vast programme underground. That is why Trump focused so much attention on destroying Fordo, the facility Iran built in secret in the mid-2000s that was publicly exposed by President Barack Obama in 2009. That is where Iran was producing almost all of the near bomb-grade fuel that most alarmed the United States and its allies. Trump's aides were telling those allies on Saturday night (UST) that Washington's sole mission was to destroy the nuclear programme. They described the complex strike as a limited, contained operation akin to the special operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. 'They explicitly said this was not a declaration of war,' one senior European diplomat said, describing his conversation with a high-ranking administration official. But, the diplomat added, bin Laden had killed 3000 Americans. Iran had yet to build a bomb. In short, the administration is arguing that it was engaged in an act of pre-emption, seeking to terminate a threat, not the Iranian regime. But it is far from clear that the Iranians will perceive it that way. In a brief address from the White House on Saturday night (UST), flanked by Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defenve Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump threatened Iran with more destruction if it does not bend to his demands. 'Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,' the President said. 'If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.' 'There will be either peace,' he added, 'or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left.' He promised that if Iran did not relent, he would go after them 'with precision, speed and skill'. In essence, Trump was threatening to broaden his military partnership with Israel, which has spent the last eight days systematically targeting Iran's top military and nuclear leadership, killing them in their beds, their laboratories and their bunkers. The United States initially separated itself from that operation. In the Trump administration's first public statement about those strikes, Rubio emphasised that Israel took 'unilateral action against Iran', adding that the United States was 'not involved'. But then, a few days ago, Trump mused on his social media platform about the ability of the US to kill Iran's 86-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, any time he wanted. And Saturday night, he made clear that the US was all-in and that, contrary to Rubio's statement, the country was now deeply involved. Now, having set back Iran's enrichment capability, Trump is clearly hoping that he can seize on a remarkable moment of weakness – the weakness that allowed the American B-2 bombers to fly in and out of Iranian territory with little resistance. After Israel's fierce retaliation for the October 7, 2023, terror attacks that killed over 1000 Israeli civilians, Iran is suddenly bereft of its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. Its closest ally, Syria's Bashar Assad, had to flee the country. And Russia and China, which formed a partnership of convenience with Iran, were nowhere to be seen after Israel attacked the country. That left only the nuclear programme as Iran's ultimate defence. It was always more than just a scientific project – it was the symbol of Iranian resistance to the West, and the core of the leadership's plan to hold on to power. Along with the repression of dissent, the programme had become the ultimate means of defence for the inheritors of the Iranian revolution that began in 1979. If the taking of 52 American hostages was Iran's way of standing up to a far larger, far more powerful adversary in 1979, the nuclear programme has been the symbol of resistance for the last two decades. One day, historians may well draw a line from those images of blindfolded Americans, who were held for 444 days, to the dropping of GBU-57 bunker-busting bombs on the mountainous redoubt called Fordo. They will likely ask whether the United States, its allies or the Iranians themselves could have played this differently. And they will almost certainly ask whether Trump's gamble paid off. His critics in Congress were already questioning his approach. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said Trump had acted 'without consulting Congress, without a clear strategy, without regard to the consistent conclusions of the intelligence community' that Iran had made no decision to take the final steps to a bomb. If Iran finds itself unable to respond effectively, if the Ayatollah's hold on power is now loosened, or if the country gives up its long-running nuclear ambitions, Trump will doubtless claim that only he was willing to use America's military reach to achieve a goal his last four predecessors deemed too risky. But there is another possibility. Iran could slowly recover, its surviving nuclear scientists could take their skills underground and the country could follow the pathway lit by North Korea, with a race to build a bomb. Today, North Korea has 60 or more nuclear weapons by some intelligence estimates, an arsenal that likely makes it too powerful to attack. That, Iran may conclude, is the only pathway to keep larger, hostile powers at bay, and to prevent the United States and Israel from carrying out an operation like the one that lit up the Iranian skies Sunday morning. This article originally appeared in the New York Times. Written by: David E. Sanger Photographs by: Carlos Barria / Getty Images ©2025 NEW YORK TIMES

1News

8 hours ago

• 1News

What to know about the Iranian nuclear sites that were hit by US strikes

US forces have attacked three Iranian nuclear and military sites, further upping the stakes in the Israel-Iran war. US President Donald Trump said the strikes, which he described as 'very successful', had hit the Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan sites, with Fordo being the primary target. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed there were attacks early today at all three nuclear sites. Israel launched a surprise barrage of attacks on sites in Iran on June 13, which Israeli officials said was necessary to head off what they claimed was an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs. Iran, which has long insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, has retaliated with a series of missile and drone strikes in Israel, while Israel has continued to strike sites in Iran. The US and Iran had been in talks that could have resulted in the US lifting some of its crushing economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran drastically limiting or ending its enrichment of uranium. Until today, Washington had helped shoot down Iranian strikes on Israel but had not launched direct attacks on Iran. ADVERTISEMENT Here's a look at the sites Trump said the US struck and their importance to Iran's nuclear programme. Natanz enrichment facility Iran's nuclear facility at Natanz, located some 220 kilometres southeast of Tehran, is the country's main enrichment site and had already been targeted by Israeli airstrikes. Uranium had been enriched to up to 60% purity at the site — a mildly radioactive level but a short step away from weapons grade — before Israel destroyed the aboveground part of the facility, according to the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Another part of the facility on Iran's Central Plateau is underground to defend against potential airstrikes. It operates multiple cascades, or groups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium. The IAEA has said it believes that most if not all of these centrifuges were destroyed by an Israeli strike that cut off power to the site. The IAEA said those strikes caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area. Iran also is burrowing into the Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, or Pickax Mountain, which is just beyond Natanz's southern fencing. Natanz has been targeted by the Stuxnet virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation, which destroyed Iranian centrifuges. Two separate attacks, attributed to Israel, also have struck the facility. Fordo enrichment facility ADVERTISEMENT The Fordo enrichment facility in Iran. (Source: Maxar Technologies via AP) Iran's nuclear facility at Fordo is located some 100 kilometres southwest of Tehran. It also hosts centrifuge cascades, but isn't as big as Natanz. Its construction began at least in 2007, according to the IAEA, although Iran only informed the UN nuclear watchdog about the facility in 2009 after the US and allied Western intelligence agencies became aware of its existence. Buried under a mountain and protected by anti-aircraft batteries, Fordo appears designed to withstand airstrikes. Military experts have said it could likely only be targeted by 'bunker buster' bombs — a term for bombs that are designed to penetrate deep below the surface before exploding — such as the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb in the American arsenal. The roughly 13,600 kilogram precision-guided bomb is designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels. The US has only configured and programmed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver that bomb, according to the Air Force. The B-2 is only flown by the Air Force, and is produced by Northrop Grumman, meaning that Washington would have to be involved in such an operation. Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre The facility in Isfahan, some 350 kilometres southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It also is home to three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country's atomic programme. Israel has struck buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site, among them a uranium conversion facility. The IAEA said there has been no sign of increased radiation at the site. ADVERTISEMENT Other nuclear sites The Fordo enrichment facility in Iran. (Source: Planet Labs PBC via AP) Iran has several other sites in its nuclear program that were not announced as targets in the US strikes. Iran's only commercial nuclear power plant is in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, some 750 kilometres south of Tehran. Iran is building two other reactors like it at the site. Bushehr is fuelled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the IAEA. The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometres southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns. The Tehran Research Reactor is at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the civilian body overseeing the country's atomic programme. It initially required highly enriched uranium but was later retrofitted to use low-enriched uranium over proliferation concerns.

RNZ News

10 hours ago

• RNZ News

US B-2 bombers, bunker-busters used in Iran strike

The B-2 is one of America's most advanced strategic weapons platforms. Photo: US Department of Defense / AFP The US Air Force's B-2 Spirit stealth bombers were involved in strikes on Iran's nuclear sites . Three Iranian nuclear sites were struck in a "very successful attack", President Donald Trump said on Saturday (local time), adding that the crown jewel of Tehran's nuclear programme, Fordow, was gone. The B-2 is one of America's most advanced strategic weapons platforms, capable of entering sophisticated air defences and delivering precision strikes against hardened targets, such as Iran's buried network of nuclear research facilities. The US B-2 costs about US$2.1 billion (NZ$3.5b) each, making it the most expensive military aircraft ever built. Made by Northrop Grumman, the bomber, with its cutting-edge stealth technology, began its production run in the late 1980s, but was curbed by the fall of the Soviet Union. Only 21 were made, after the Pentagon's planned acquisition programme was truncated. The bomber's range of more than 11,112 km without refuelling enables global strike capabilities from continental US bases. With aerial refueling, the B-2 can reach virtually any target worldwide, as demonstrated in missions from Missouri to Afghanistan and Libya, and now Iran. Its payload capacity of more than 18,144 kg allows the aircraft to carry a diverse array of conventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber's internal weapons bays are specifically designed to maintain stealth characteristics, while accommodating large ordnance loads that could include two GBU-57A/B MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator), a 13,600kg precision-guided 'bunker buster' bomb. Reports said six bunker buster bombs were used on Iran's Fordow research site. The B-2's two-pilot crew configuration reduces personnel requirements, while maintaining operational effectiveness through advanced automation systems. Iran's Fordow research site on 14 June, 2025, well before it was hit by a reported six bunker-busters. Photo: AFP The B-2's stealth technology incorporates radar-absorbing materials and angular design features that minimise detection by enemy air defence systems. Its radar cross-section is reportedly comparable to that of a small bird, making it nearly invisible to conventional radar. The 13,600kg MOP represents the largest conventional bomb in the US arsenal, specifically engineered to defeat hardened underground bunkers. Its massive size requires the B-2 to carry only one or two MOPs per mission, but provides unmatched bunker-penetration capability. The weapon's 6.25m length and GPS-guided precision targeting system enable accurate strikes against specific underground facilities. Its penetration capability of more than 60 metres through hardened concrete makes it effective against the world's most protected underground installations. Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) provide the B-2 with precision conventional strike capability against fixed targets. These GPS-guided weapons can be deployed in large numbers, with the bomber capable of simultaneously engaging multiple targets with high accuracy. Joint Standoff Weapons (JSOW) extend the aircraft's engagement range, while maintaining stealth characteristics during approach. These glide bombs allow the B-2 to strike targets from outside heavily defended airspace perimeters. Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) offer long-range precision strike capability with their own stealth features. The extended-range JASSM-ER variant provides strike options against targets over 800km) away. The B-2 Spirit serves as a key component of America's nuclear triad, capable of delivering strategic nuclear weapons with stealth and precision. The aircraft can carry up to 16 B83 nuclear bombs. - Reuters