U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday that Saturday night’s targeted bombings of three nuclear sites inside Iran “obliterated” the Islamic regime’s capabilities.
“it was an incredible and overwhelming success,” Hegseth said at a Sunday news conference.
Seven B-2 stealth bombers based out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri were used to carry out attacks on Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan while more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles were shot from nuclear submarines, The Center Square reported. The U.S. also used 30,000 pound, GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs, known as “bunker busters” because of their ability to penetrate deep inside well-protected facilities such as at the Fordow nuclear site in Iran, which is built 300 feet inside a mountain.
President Donald Trump, in a late Saturday night address to the nation, said the goal of the strike was to destroy Iran’s “nuclear enrichment capacity and [put] a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”
“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Hegseth said Sunday.
The attack did not target Iranian troops or civilians, he added.
“Thanks to President Trump’s bold and visionary leadership, and his commitment to peace through strength, Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,” Hegseth said. “Many presidents have dreamed of delivering the final blow to Iran’s nuclear program, and none could, until President Trump. The operation President Trump planned was bold, and it was brilliant, showing the world that American deterrence is back. When this president speaks, the world should listen. And the U.S. military? We can back it up.”
Hegseth said the U.S. is not seeking war and warned Iran that any attacks on U.S. interests would be met with a more powerful response than Saturday night’s bombings.
General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, followed Hegseth Sunday and said the coordinated attack was kept tightly under wraps so the U.S. could maintain the element of surprise. Caine said officials are not aware of any countermeasures against the B-2 bombers.
Caine also was more measured when it came to evaluating the damage done to Iran’s nuclear sites, saying it will “take come time” before the U.S. fully knows whether the sites were destroyed.
“I know that battle damage is of great interest,” he said. “Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.”
While there has been no credible threats of attached on U.S. soil, several cities have placed law enforcement on high alert out of an “abundance of caution.”
