In a series of escalatory moves in the war between Israel and Iran, the United States on Saturday joined the conflict, striking three Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites.
US President Donald Trump called the strikes “very successful”, while adding that all planes used for the attack were safely returning home. The strikes were also confirmed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
However, Iran confirmed Sunday that there “no signs of contamination” after the targeted strikes at its nuclear facilities. The country’s National Nuclear Safety System Center said that no radioactive release had been detected by radiation detectors, the Iranian state media reported.
The conflict escalated after Israel’s strikes on Iran on June 13 under ‘Operation Rising Lion’.
What were the targets?
The US struck three nuclear targets in Iran, namely the Natanz, Fordo or Fordow, and Isfahan enrichment facilities.
The Natanz enrichment facility, which is located about 220 km southeast of Tehran, has already been a target of Israeli strikes earlier. It is Iran’s primary nuclear facility, with Uranium being enriched to up to 60 per cent on the site, bringing it to a mildly radioactive level, but below the weapons grade, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The UN nuclear watchdog said that most of the centrifuges working underground in Iran’s Central Plateau as part of the Natanz enrichment facility were destroyed in earlier Israeli strikes. These were working to quicken the uranium enrichment process.
The second target was Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility, located southwest of Tehran, which Trump said was struck with a “full payload of bombs”. The site, like Natanz, has centrifuge cascades, and is capable of housing 3,000 centrifuges. After the strikes on Iran, Trump reshared a post, put up by a news and open source intelligence monitoring portal, which said, “Fordow is gone”. The enrichment facility was built under a mountain near Iran’s holy city of Qom, in violation of the UN resolutions.
The nuclear facility at Isfahan, southeast of Tehran, was also targeted. The site also has three Chinese research reactors and laboratories.
What were the munitions used?
The US used the GBU-57 series Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) – a 30,000 pound bunker-buster bomb – to strike Fordow nuclear facility, according to AFP news agency.
Reports said six bunker buster bombs were used on Iran’s Fordow research site.
The 30,000-pound MOP represents the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal, specifically engineered to pierce through hardened underground bunkers. It
With Fordow being buried under a mountain and protected with anti-aircraft batteries, it appears to have been designed to withstand any airstrikes. According to military experts quoted by AP, bunker-buster bombs, which travel deep below a surface before exploding, could have penetrated the facility. The latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb in the US arsenal has been designed to strike any deeply buried bunkers or tunnels.
What was the aircraft deployed?
The only aircraft which has been configured and programmed to deliver the GBU-57 is America’s B-2 Spirit. The aircraft is a long-range stealth bomber capable of carrying two bunker-busting bombs.
The B-2 stealth bomber aircraft have the capacity to fly 6,000 nautical miles (9,600 kilometers) without the need to refuel. According to the US military, the aircraft can “penetrate an enemy’s most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets.” The B-2 Spirit first flew in 1988, with the planes being delivered five years later.
Before the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, US media and specialist flight tracking sites had reported that multiple B-2s had left from their base in Missouri in central United States.
What did Trump say after the strikes?
US President Trump issued a warning after the strikes on the Iranian nuclear sites, saying “there will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran”.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” he said in a post on Truth Social. He said that all American planes were safely out of the Iranian airspace, and a “full payload of bombs” was dropped at Fordo enrichment facility.
“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!” Trump said in another post.
In a televised address, Trump said that Iran’s key nuclear sites had been “completely and totally obliterated”.
