The United States bombed multiple nuclear sites in Iran, President Donald Trump announced in a social media post on Saturday. The airstrikes are the first time the United States has conducted a direct military attack on Iran, and they further escalated a military conflict between Iran and Israel that began on June 13.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump said in a social media post at 7:50 p.m. ET. “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.”
The Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility in central Iran on June 3. Maxar Technologies / AFP via Getty Images, file
Trump added, “Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
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Iranian state media confirmed afer Trump’s announcement that the facility in Fordow had been attacked. Trump also announced in a second social post that he would be giving “an Address to the Nation at 10:00 P.M., at the White House, regarding our very successful military operation in Iran.”
Trump then called for Iran to end the conflict, an apparent reference to U.S. demands that Iran give up its nuclear program. “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 wrote.
A senior White House official said that Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening after the U.S. dropped bombs on the Iranian nuclear sites.
Experts have said that a bomb attack on an Iranian facility that holds enriched uranium would not cause the equivalent of a nuclear bomb detonation. But there is a chance that radioctive material could be spread if locations that hold enriched uraniums are struck.
Iranian officials said on state television that Iran had evacuated three nuclear sites that were struck some time ago. They said there were no materials at the sites that could cause radiation.
Israel was able to hit some of Iran’s nuclear facilities on its own, but it is not believed to be able to strike a key site at Fordo, which is believed to hold both a large amount of enriched uranium and advanced centrifuges.
The facility at Fordo, Iran’s most advanced, is built inside a mountain and believed to be safe from any bomb except for the United States’ GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a “bunker buster” weapon.
Fordo, a uranium enrichment facility south of Tehran, the capital of Iran, on Feb. 12.Maxar Technologies / AFP via Getty Images, file
Trump did not say which type of bombs were used in the strikes, but it was widely expected that the GBU-57 would be used. Earlier in the day, several American B-2 stealth bombers, which are the only plane that can carry GBU-57 bombs, which weigh 30,000 pounds, took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
The United States has provided Israel with smaller bunker busters but Israel is not known to have a plane capable of delivering the MOP, making U.S. participation necessary for any successful airstrike on Fordo.
According to Israeli officials, its attacks have killed several of Iran’s top military commanders, along with at least nine scientists working on nuclear enrichment, and they have damaged several nuclear enrichment facilities across Iran.
Israel was able to conduct its initial strikes mostly with its own intelligence and forces, but it leaned heavily on U.S. intelligence, as well as U.S. munitions and defense systems that Washington had previously provided. when Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Israel.
Two U.S. officials told NBC News that the United States used ground-based interceptors and ships to defend Israel when Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes.
Trump’s shift
NBC News has reported that Trump initially opposed Israel taking military action against Iran, favoring negotiations over bombing. But in the days before Israel’s strikes on Iran, he became convinced that Israel’s heightened anxiety over Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities was warranted.
After a pivotal June 8 briefing from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, about Israel’s plans and U.S. options for supporting its operation, Trump gave tacit approval for Israel to conduct strikes and that the U.S. would provide limited backing.
Even though many of his MAGA allies have advocated against U.S. military involvement, Trump’s rhetoric about Iran has steadily escalated since Israel’s bombing campaign began.
President Donald Trump meets reporters after he signed a trade agreement with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, on Monday.Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
On Tuesday, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, he called for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
Wednesday morning, he said he was still considering U.S. strikes.
“I may do it. I may not do it,” he told reporters outside the White House. “Nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
After the U.S. strikes on Saturday, Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and the founder of the group Turning Point USA, praised Trump’s decision.
“Iran gave President Trump no choice. For a decade he has been adamant that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon,” Kirk wrote. “Iran decided to forego diplomacy in pursuit of a bomb. This is a surgical strike, operated perfectly. President Trump acted with prudence and decisiveness.”
Concerns about retaliatory attacks
Tommy Vietor, who served as a National Security Council spokesperson during the Obama administration, warned of retaliatory attacks by Tehran against the U.S.
“Iran might retaliate today, tomorrow or in months. Or a year from now, Iran or its proxies might blow up a bus filled with American tourists in Cyprus,” Vietor wrote in a social media post. “No one knows what comes next. Bombing Iran started something that we no longer have the capacity to predict or contain.”
The New York Police Department said in a statement that is was deploying officers at sensitive locations around the city in the wake of the attack.
“We’re tracking the situation unfolding in Iran,” the statement said. “Out of an abundance of caution, we’re deploying additional resources to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across NYC and coordinating with our federal partners.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Alex Koppelman
Mosheh Gains and Mirna Alsharif contributed.
