Did the US really wipe out Iran's nuclear sites? Reports say Trump may have been tricked by Tehran
Despite President Trump's declaration of a complete victory, the US airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities have yielded mixed results. While some sites sustained damage, particularly at Fordow, doubts remain about the extent of destruction to underground facilities. Concerns linger regarding Iran's potential relocation of enriched uranium, potentially hindering but not halting their nuclear ambitions.
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Did the US really wipe out Iran's nuclear sites?
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What do satellite images reveal about the damage?
What do experts think about the attack?
Has Iran secretly moved its highly enriched Uranium?
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US President Donald Trump announced with confidence that US airstrikes had destroyed Iran's main nuclear sites and called it a complete victory. However, expert opinions and satellite images present a different picture.On Saturday night, Donald Trump dispatched seven B-2 stealth bombers from the United States to destroy Tehran's nuclear program by dropping massive bunker-busting bombs on three enrichment facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.Some underground facilities may have survived, and enriched uranium may have been moved without anyone knowing. The attack may have slowed down Iran's nuclear plans, but it did not stop them, as per reports by CNN and Reuters.Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine said Sunday that a US submarine used Tomahawk cruise missiles to strike an Isfahan location where a US official estimates that approximately 60% of Iran's stockpile of already-enriched nuclear material is kept underground.The Isfahan facility was not hit by massive "bunker-buster" bombs dropped by B-2 bombers, in contrast to the other two Iranian facilities targeted in the operation, as per a report by CNN.Although the US used 12 bunker busters to destroy Iran's facility at Fordow, another underground location that contained centrifuges needed to enrich uranium, the facility's evident survival has prompted doubts about whether Trump's declared objective was even met.According to commercial satellite imagery, the U.S. attack on Iran's Fordow nuclear plant seriously damaged, if not completely destroyed, the deeply buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it contained, but experts said on Sunday that there was no proof of it. However, it is unknown how much damage has been done because the facility has layers of tunnels.Maxar Technologies' satellite imagery from Thursday and Friday revealed "unusual activity" at Fordow, including a lengthy line of cars waiting outside one of the facility's entrances.Jeffrey Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, has closely examined commercial satellite images of the strike sites and said the damage to the facility seems limited to aboveground structures.'They just punched through with these MOPs,' said David Albright, the head of the Institute for Science and International Security and a former U.N. nuclear inspector, in reference to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs that the United States claimed it dropped.Decker Eveleth, a satellite images specialist and associate researcher with the CNA Corporation, pointed out that it was impossible to confirm the destruction below ground. The hall that houses hundreds of centrifuges is "too deeply buried for us to evaluate the level of damage based on satellite imagery," he stated earlier.According to Iran, prior to US attacks on its nuclear bases, the majority of its highly enriched uranium was smuggled to a hidden location. Iran claimed that it had moved its 400 kg stockpile, much of which was kept at Isfahan, and satellite photos showed convoys departing all three locations in recent days, as per a report by Reuters.Authorities think that the majority of Fordow's 400 kg of 60%-enriched uranium was transferred prior to Operation Midnight Hammer, as per a report by The Telegraph.Photo of 16 trucks snaking down a road near the entrance of the Fordow plant, obscured by rubble and dirt, was released by US defense contractor Maxar Technologies on June 19.Polish defense company TS2 Space reports that trucks, bulldozers, and security convoys swarm Fordow, where analysts observed a "frantic effort" to move shielding materials or centrifuges.Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon stated that transferring Iran's uranium would be "like having fuel without a car" and that they are unable to do much with it unless they develop a small-scale project that we are unaware of, as per The Telegraph.They also warned that Iran might be concealing this and other nuclear components in places that Israel, the United States, and the U.N. nuclear inspectors are unaware of.It would take years and rely on Tehran's capacity to restore essential equipment before Iran could produce a nuclear weapon, even though it might have the materials.Not entirely; experts believe some deep underground facilities and uranium stockpiles were spared.Iran has the potential to rebuild, as key equipment and uranium may have been secretly relocated.
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