U.S. strikes Iran's nuclear sites, risking wider Mideast war
(Bloomberg) — The US carried out airstrikes on three nuclear sites in Iran overnight, directly entering Israel's war with Tehran despite President Donald Trump's longtime promises to avoid new foreign conflicts.
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Trump said Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities had been 'totally obliterated' and warned of 'far greater' attacks unless the Islamic Republic agreed to make peace, raising the prospect of deeper US involvement in a Middle East war sparked by Israeli strikes nine days ago.
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Iranian officials said the ongoing attacks by Israel — now joined by the US — had left little room for diplomacy, arguing that negotiations are impossible while the country is under assault. Tehran fired missiles at Israel in response but has so far stopped short of targeting American forces or assets in the region.
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American B-2 bombers dropped 14 of the 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) bunker-buster bombs on targets including Fordow, a uranium-enrichment site buried deep under a mountain, according to US Air Force General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities were also struck with similar weapons and cruise missiles.
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'Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terror,' Trump said. '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.'
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Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the American strikes are 'outrageous and will have everlasting consequences.'
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The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it would continue targeting Israel in response and cited American bases in the region as a vulnerability for the US, without openly threatening them.
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Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has yet to make an appearance or comment on the airstrikes.
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Despite Trump's declaration that all targeted nuclear facilities were obliterated, neither Israel nor Iran offered definitive assessment of the damages to those sites.
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Tehran's nuclear regulatory agency said there was no sign of radiation contamination and that it had taken precautions in anticipation of an attack.
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