U.S. hits Iran nuclear facilities, braces for counterattack

B-2 stealth bombers conducted a series of strikes on targets in Iran, according to a Defense official. There were no U.S. casualties in the attack.
WASHINGTON − The United States has attacked Iran, bombing sites associated with the country's nuclear facilities, President Donald Trump announced Saturday night in a social media post.
B-2 stealth bombers conducted a series of strikes on targets in Iran, according to a senior Defense official. There were no U.S. casualties.
Measures to protect the nearly 40,000 U.S. troops in the region have been incrementally increased over the last two weeks, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. The Army has been at the third of four levels of alert at most places in the region, the official said.
Iran is expected to retaliate in some way, the official said. However, Iran's ability to counterattack has been degraded by Israeli airstrikes. Iran is still believed to have some offensive capacity, including drones that could target U.S. bases in the region, the official said.
More: 40,000 reasons to worry: U.S. troops in Middle East could face Iran blowback
B-2 stealth bombers are based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. They are the only aircraft that can deliver the Pentagon's largest conventional bomb, the bunker-busting GBU-57. That bomb can penetrate deep into the ground, even through concrete, before it delivers a devastating explosive charge.
More: How does a bunker-buster bomb work? A closer look at the GBU-57
The deeply-buried nuclear sites in Iran likely would have required multiple strikes to damage or destroy the equipment they held.
Israel's airstrikes and drone attacks unleashed inside Iran had compromised what had been considered robust air defenses, the official said.
It's unclear if other U.S. warplanes took part in the raid. However, it's likely that the Pentagon took measures to ensure that it could rescue pilots if they had been shot down, or if mechanical failure had forced pilots to eject from their warplanes.
Now, the Pentagon will brace for a counterattack. In 2020, after the Pentagon killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Iran responded by firing 13 ballistic missiles at an air base in Iraq. The attack wounded more than 100 U.S. troops.

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Starmer calls for ‘diplomatic solution' after US strikes Iran

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26 minutes ago

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US strikes 3 Iranian nuclear sites, inserting itself into Israel's war with Iran

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'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan," Trump said in a post on social media, using common alternate spellings for two of the sites. "All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.' Trump added in a later post: 'This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!' Israel announced Sunday that it had closed its airspace to both inbound and outbound flights in the wake of the U.S. attacks. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation. U.S. military leaders are scheduled to provide a briefing at 8 a.m. Eastern. The attack used bunker-buster bombs on Iran's Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant that is built deep into a mountain, a U.S. official said. 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During his previous administration, Trump pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, prompting Tehran to begin enriching uranium to higher levels and restrict the access of IAEA inspectors to its facilities. ___ Madhani reported from Morristown, N.J. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi, Mehdi Fattahi and Amir Vahdat in Iran; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv; Lolita Baldor in Narragansett, Rhode Island; Samy Magdy in Cairo; and Farnoush Amiri in Dubai contributed to this story. David Rising, Jon Gambrell And Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press

Newsweek

30 minutes ago

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Map Shows Where US Strikes Hit in Iran

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A map shows where the U.S. struck three of Iran's main nuclear sites on Saturday, bringing the U.S. directly into the conflict between Iran and Israel after speculation over whether America's self-styled role as peacemaker-in-chief would embroil Washington in Israel's large-scale attacks. Trump said on Saturday evening that the U.S. had carried out "massive precision strikes" to take out Tehran's nuclear enrichment facilities and its ability to make a nuclear weapon. The strikes were a "spectacular military success," Trump said. "Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated." The U.S. struck Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, Trump said. Israel launched attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and scientists—as well as the country's ballistic missile sites and other military assets—late on June 12 U.S. ET. Among those targets were Natanz, Iran's most significant nuclear enrichment site, and Isfahan, to the southwest of Natanz. North to south: a Newsweek map shows Iran's key nuclear facilities of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. North to south: a Newsweek map shows Iran's key nuclear facilities of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Newsweek But Israel could not effectively target Iran's nuclear program at Fordow, which Iran built under a mountain south of Tehran. Only the U.S.'s B-2 heavy stealth bombers and massive munitions work for that type of attack, experts said. An unnamed U.S. official told Reuters that B-2s were involved in the strikes on Saturday after the news agency reported that the U.S. had moved heavy bombers to the Pacific island of Guam. The U.S. hit Natanz and Isfahan with Tomahawk submarine-launched cruise missiles, two senior Pentagon officials told CBS News. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but senior officials have publicly debated developing a nuclear weapon. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said just ahead of the start of Israel's strike campaign that Tehran was not cooperating with its nuclear obligations for the first time in 20 years. Iran said it would get a new enrichment site in a "secure location" up and running. Israel and the U.S., as well as other countries allied with Washington, have insisted it is not acceptable for Iran to gain a nuclear weapon. What Has Iran Said? Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had threatened the U.S. with "irreparable damage" if Washington became involved in strikes on the country. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in the hours before the U.S. strikes that Washington's involvement would be "very, very dangerous." "The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences," the minister said in later remarks posted to social media on Sunday. Trump, in his own post to the Truth Social platform, said any Iranian retaliation against the U.S. would bring fresh American attacks "GREATER THAN WHAT WAS WITNESSED TONIGHT." Fordow, the Site Israel Couldn't Reach "A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow," Trump said in a post to Truth Social late U.S. time on Saturday. Experts said it would likely take several of American GBU-57/B bombs—weighing in at a massive 30,000 pounds—to take out more than just the entrance to Fordow. Manan Raeisi, an Iranian lawmaker in the city of Qom, close to the site, told the country's semi-official Tasnim news agency that "critical infrastructure remains intact" at Fordow. Satellite imagery captured by Maxar on July 30, 2025, and provided by Google Earth shows the entrance to Iran's Fordow underground nuclear facilities. Satellite imagery captured by Maxar on July 30, 2025, and provided by Google Earth shows the entrance to Iran's Fordow underground nuclear facilities. Maxar/Google Earth "What was hit was mostly on the ground and fully restorable," Raeisi said. "Trump's bluff about destroying Fordow is laughable." Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, told the BBC on Sunday that Iran's nuclear program "has been hit substantially." The IAEA said on Sunday it had not detected any increase in off-site radiation after the strikes on the three sites. Iranian state media reported key nuclear sites had been evacuated ahead of U.S. attacks, with enriched uranium moved "to a safe location." Satellite imagery captured by Maxar, a space technology firm, on Thursday and Friday showed "unusual" vehicle activity at the entrance to the underground facility at Fordow.