US media reports say the United States attacked three key Iranian nuclear facilities early Sunday local time. US President Donald Trump claimed the operation “obliterated” the sites, but officials are still assessing how significant of a blow it dealt to Tehran’s program.
CNN reports that B-2 stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen massive “bunker-buster” bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz facilities, while Tomahawk missiles struck Isfahan, according to a US timeline of the attack.
The strikes reportedly thrust the US into the Israel-Iran conflict, which has seen the two sides trade attacks for over a week.
Top administration officials insist the US is not at war with Iran, but Trump has warned the US could launch more attacks if Tehran does not make peace and suggested Sunday evening that regime change was possible in the country, according to CNN.
CBS reports that President Trump said in a national address from the White House Saturday night. "Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror."
Prior to his address, the president wrote on his Truth Social platform that a "full payload of BOMBS" was dropped on the "primary site" Fordo. The president also said all U.S. planes made it safely out of Iranian airspace.
CBS notes that Trump has warned Iran against retaliating after U.S. strikes. There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days," Mr. Trump said while flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. "Remember, there are many targets left."
Reuters reports that the world braced on Sunday for Iran's response after the U.S. attacked key Iranian nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reportedly warned of a "heightened threat environment" in America, citing the possibility of cyberattacks or targeted violence. Law enforcement in major U.S. cities stepped up patrols with a focus on religious, cultural and diplomatic sites.
Iranian authorities confirmed the strikes after several hours, but said there was no radioactive leak. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also confirmed there was no off-site contamination.
Iranian state media appeared to downplay the impact, with the state-run IRNA reporting from an area near Fordow, the most significant and hard-to-reach nuclear site, that there was only limited smoke rising from the place where air defenses were believed to be stationed and no major activity from emergency responders.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency (MNA) and Press TV report that Iran's Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeed Iravani says that Tehran reserves its legitimate right to defend itself and respond to the blatant US and Israeli aggression.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body "to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression" by the United States on Iran nuclear sites.
Speaking at the meeting, Iravani said that Iran is defending itself while the United States is supporting terrorism in the region.
He further stressed that the US claims against Iran are not true and are not legal, but rather political. The US action in assassinating the martyr Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iran's IRGC Quds Force, was a terrorist act and he, who was an official force of the Islamic Republic, was assassinated.
Meanwhile, Iran and Israel continued to trade volleys of missile attacks. An Israeli military spokesperson said Israeli fighter jets had struck military targets in western Iran. Earlier, Iran fired missiles that wounded scores of people and flattened buildings in Tel Aviv.
