Pentagon watchdog opens probe into use of Signal for Yemen attack plans

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - The Pentagon's Inspector General's office announced on Thursday it was opening a probe into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of an unclassified commercial texting application to coordinate the March 15 launch of U.S. strikes on Yemen's Houthis.
"The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business," Steven Stebbins, the acting Inspector General, wrote in a memo.

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Scottish Sun

an hour ago

• Scottish Sun

Trump says US took ‘bomb out of Iran's hands' and caused ‘monumental' damage as Tehran vows to retaliate

BRACING FOR STRIKES Trump says US took 'bomb out of Iran's hands' and caused 'monumental' damage as Tehran vows to retaliate DONALD Trump said that the US military took the "bomb out of Iran's hands" and caused "monumental" damage to Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The Islamic Republic - hurt and wounded - has vowed to retaliate by striking US targets in the Middle East. 5 United States President Donald J Trump addresseed the nation after bombing Iran Credit: AP 5 A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex after the US strikes Credit: Reuters 5 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is expected to retaliate against US and its allies 5 Iran's murderous terrorist wing, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps 5 Slamming Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman who opposed the US miliatry intervention in the region, Trump said: "We had a spectacular military success yesterday, taking the 'bomb' right out of their hands (and they would use it if they could!) but, as usual, and despite all of the praise and accolades received, this 'lightweight' Congressman is against what was so brilliantly achieved last night." Trump last night hailed the US military bombing on Iran's key nuclear facilities, saying the strikes "obliterated" Tehran's doomsday program. He said: "The damage to the Nuclear sites in Iran is said to be 'monumental'. The hits were hard and accurate." Tehran retaliated to the US bombing by approving steps to close the Strait of Hormuz - a bottleneck entrance to the Gulf where nearly a quarter of the oil shipped around the world passes through narrow waters. Iran's Press TV said closing the strait would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Attempting to choke off Gulf oil by closing the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing and derail the world economy. It would also invite an almost certain conflict with the US Navy's massive Fifth Fleet based in the Gulf, which is tasked with keeping it open. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a "suicide mission," adding it would be a massive escalation that would merit a response from the US and others. Meanwhile, Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said bases used by US forces could be attacked in retaliation. 'Any country in the region or elsewhere that is used by American forces to strike Iran will be considered a legitimate target for our armed forces,' he said in a message carried by the official IRNA news agency. 'America has attacked the heart of the Islamic world and must await irreparable consequences.' Tehran has so far not followed through on its threats of retaliation against the United States - either by targeting US bases or trying to choke off global oil supplies. But that may not hold up. Trump warned that further action could be taken if Tehran doesn't agree to an adequate peace deal, or tries to harm American interests. He said in a nationally televised speech at the White House: "Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier." "There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days." 'Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. 'But if peace does not come quickly we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill." Stay up to date with the latest on Israel vs Iran with The Sun's live blog below...

BBC News

an hour ago

• BBC News

How the US says it hit Iran's nuclear sites

A continuous flight over 18 hours, multiple mid-air refuelings, and a series of decoys - this is how the mission to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities played out, according to four-star General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the US the full impact of what the US is calling 'Operation Midnight Hammer' is still unclear, a timeline of how the complex mission unfolded was laid out in a Pentagon briefing on Sunday morning, mere hours after the bombers went "in and out and back without the world knowing at all", US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters. It all began just after midnight when Secretary Hegseth joined US President Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and elite Pentagon staff in the Situation Room at the White House to watch as a fleet of aircraft departed an American airbase in rural the cover of darkness, B-2 stealth bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base at 00:01 EDT (05:01 BST), according to the ultimate target: Iran's most secure nuclear subsonic jets, which travel just below the speed of sound, flew over the Atlantic Ocean loaded with powerful "bunker buster" bombs capable of penetrating concrete over 18m (60ft) the kind of weaponry needed to hit Iran's nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, which is buried below a mountain deep underground and considered to be the epicentre of the country's nuclear programme. The US is the only country in the world known to possess this type of weapon. But the world wasn't watching - yet. All eyes were facing west, towards the Pacific Ocean, following reports bombers had been sent to the US island territory of Guam."While the deployment is not being officially connected to discussions around the US joining Israel's war on Iran, few will doubt the link," the BBC wrote at the it was just a ruse - according to the account delivered by the Pentagon - a decoy to distract from the top-secret flights heading straight for Iran over the Atlantic. The planes that flew west over the Pacific were "a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders," Gen Caine said."The main strike package comprised of seven B-2 spirit bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications," he military planes don't show up on flight tracking websites, making it difficult for the BBC to independently verify the Pentagon's description of the although satellite images can help show the extent of damage at the sites overnight, they can't tell us the exact times when they were the fleet made it to the Middle East, sometime around 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST), it was joined by support aircraft that helped protect the bombers by sweeping in front of them to look for enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile threats, in what Gen Caine called a "complex, tightly timed manoeuvre".But Iranian fighter jets didn't take off and no air defences appeared to fire a shot, according to US officials."Israeli dominance over Iranian airspace primed the pump for American bombers to operate with impunity," Patrycja Bazylczyk, a missile defence expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, told BBC next hour and forty minutes were described by Gen Caine during the Pentagon briefing in a level of detail not normally disclosed to the the briefing provided timings for certain events, the map showing the bombers' journey wasn't a specific flight path and differed slightly in two versions Trump administration has proclaimed the subsequent events as a total victory, claiming the US had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear regime. But the true extent of the damage, and its aftermath, has yet to be Iran has confirmed the attacks, it has minimised the extent of the damage and has not provided a specific account of the sequence of around 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST) US officials say more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles were launched from a US submarine stationed in the Arabia Sea towards the nuclear site near Isfahan, a city of about two million the nuclear facility there is hundreds of kilometres inland, the submarines were close enough to enable the cruise missiles to impact at roughly the same time as the stealthy B-2s dropped their "bunker buster" bombs over the other two nuclear sites, said Dr Stacie Pettyjohn, a defence expert at the Center for a New American all meant that the US was able to provide "a coordinated surprise attack on multiple sites", she told BBC the fleet of bombers entered Iranian airspace, where the US employed several other deception tactics, including more decoys, according to the the air strikes lead bomber dropped two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapons - known as MOPs - on the first of several targets at Fordo at about 18:40 EDT (23:40 BST), just after 02:00 in the morning in MOP bomb is able to drop through about 18m (60ft) of concrete or 61m (200ft) of earth before exploding, according to experts. This means that although it's not guaranteed success, it is the only bomb in the world that could come close to impacting the depth of tunnels at the Fordo facility - thought to be 80-90m (262-295ft) below the was the first time the "bunker buster" bombs were ever dropped in a real combat operation. The remaining bombers then hit their targets - with a total of 14 MOPs dropped on Fordo and a second nuclear facility at Natanz, according to the Pentgaon. And at the Isfahan nuclear site, over 200km away from Fordo, the Tomahawk missiles hit their the planes spent 18 hours in the air, all the targets were hit in just about 25 minutes before they exited Iran at 19:30 EDT (00:30 BST) to return to the US, according to the total, about 75 precision guided weapons and more than 125 US aircraft were used, and Secretary Hegseth claimed the mission provided "powerful and clear" destruction of Iran's nuclear evidence of the full scope of the strikes will take time to assess - with more footage needed to see how deep underground the bunker buster bombs were able to penetrate at the key nuclear sites."This was an incredibly complicated and very sophisticated attack that no other country in the world could have performed," Dr Pettyjohn said."Despite the success of the operation tactically, it is unclear if it will achieve the goal of permanently setting back Iran's nuclear program." What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Daily Mail​

2 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Fighter jet headfake: U.S. sent B-2 bomber flights West as DECOY ahead of bombing Iran

Top U.S. military officials revealed the historic strikes on Iran 's nuclear facilities utilized a massive deception effort, including the use of 'decoy' planes that allowed the actual bombers to go 'completely undetected.' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine spoke to reporters in a rare early morning press briefing Sunday at the Pentagon. 'Our B-2s went in and out and back without the world knowing at all,' Hegseth said. It was the most B-2 bomber strikes carried out in history, the officials shared. 'A large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States as part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise. Part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy, a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of climbers and key leaders here in Washington,' Caine added. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs claimed no Iranian planes were deployed to intercept the bombers, and the U.S. planes used in the strike were not hit with any fire. Caine said the mission was named 'Operation Midnight Hammer' and was meant to degrade the country's nuclear programs. 'Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,' Hegseth added, noting the operation was an 'incredible and overwhelming success.' It did not target Iranian troops or Iranian people, the defense secretary stressed. The surprise attack on Saturday utilized seven B-2 stealth bombers that dropped 14 30,000-pound 'bunker buster' bombs on Iran's primary nuclear facility. Over 125 U.S. aircraft participated in the mission, including bombers, fighters, and refueling tankers, Caine said. Approximately 75 precision-guided weapons were employed in the attacks, including Tomahawk missiles fired from submarines. However, it is still unclear whether the strikes on the nuclear sites completely destroyed Iran's nuclear capabilities. Caine admitted that the operation 'severely damaged' the sites, but shared little more detail. President Donald Trump announced Saturday in an evening address at the White House that U.S. strikes within Iran 'were a spectacular military success.' Nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were all hit, the president said. The most difficult target was a secret uranium enrichment facility located deep underground in Fordow, approximately 80 miles south of Tehran. U.S. submarines also fired 30 Tomahawk missiles and wiped out two other Iranian nuclear sites at Natanz and Isfahan. Hours after the strikes, Iranian forces began lobbing missiles at Israel in a counterattack. Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi called the U.S. offensive 'extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behavior.' 'Humanity has come too far as a species to allow a lawless bully to take us back to the law of the jungle,' Aragchi said. The Middle Eastern country has vowed revenge for the airstrikes. Iran's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened 'severe punishment.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, celebrated Trump for attacking 'the world's most dangerous regime' And Hegseth noted that while many presidents have dreamed of delivering the 'final blow' to Iran's nuclear programs, 'none could until President Trump.' But experts note it will take some time to verify if the bombing campaign eradicated all of Iran's nuclear capability.