WASHINGTON, June 22: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday that U.S. military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities were an incredible and overwhelming success that have obliterated Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
The U.S. strikes included 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft, in an operation the top U.S. general, General Dan Caine, said was named “Operation Midnight.”
The operation pushes the Middle East to the brink of a major new conflagration in a region already aflame for more than 20 months with wars in Gaza and Lebanon and a toppled dictator in Syria.
“Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,” Hegseth told reporters in a briefing, adding that said the strikes did not target Iranian troops or people.
“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,” Hegseth said.
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Earlier, American forces used “six huge bunker buster bombs” in the hit on the Fordow facility, said Fox News host Sean Hannity after speaking to Trump shortly following the US attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites.
The bombs, he said, were dropped by the US B-52 bomber aircrafts.
Hannity also said that Iran’s Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites “were wiped out with 30 Tomahawk missiles launched by American submarines some 400 miles away”.
Iranian officials say the facilities were evacuated prior to the US attacks, with one legislator saying the damage at Fordow is not serious.
It is worth mentioning here that President Donald Trump said the US military has carried out a “very successful attack” on three Iranian nuclear sites, including the underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordo.
“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 his Truth Social platform.
“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow.”
Trump added that “all planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors.”
Donald Trump’s announcement came just two days after he said he would decide “within two weeks” whether to join key ally Israel in attacking Iran.
Earlier on Saturday there were reports that US B-2 bombers — which carry so-called “bunker buster” bombs — were headed out of the United States.
Trump did not say what kind of US planes or munitions were involved.
Tehran had threatened reprisals on US forces in the Middle East if Trump attacked but the US president called for “peace.”
“There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!” he said.
