The U.S. military struck three Iranian nuclear sites June 21 in an operation intended to shut down Iran’s nuclear program and not harm the country’s leadership.
U.S. Air Force bombers and submarine-launched cruise missiles struck three sites in the early hours of June 22: The Fordow, Natanaz, and Isfahan facilities.
“Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” President Donald Trump said in a late-night address from the White House June 21. Standing in front of Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Trump continued: “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”
Air Force B-2 bombers released five or six GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker buster bombs on the Fordow site, which is buried deep underground, Trump told Fox News. The president said 30 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles were fired at Natanz and Isfahan.
“We have completed our very successful attack,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.”
Earlier in the day, U.S. officials said multiple B-2 stealth bombers were heading west over the Pacific, but it is not clear if those aircraft were part of the strike package on Iran. Each B-2 can carry two 30,000-pound GBU-57s, known as MOPs. The bombs are designed to detonate in a series of explosions to collapse multi-level structures buried underground.
Israel had wiped out most Iranian air defenses in the eight days leading up to the June 21 attack, but without the munitions or bombers capable of destroying a site like Fordow, Israel had asked for American help. Israel’s punishing air campaign, dubbed Operation Rising Lion, was launched June 12 with the intent of diminishing Iran’s ability to develop and use nuclear weapons. Israel also attacked Iran’s military leadership, killing numerous senior military leaders and systematically undermining Iran’s ability to defend itself.
The Fordow nuclear enrichment facility, however, was one target Israel could not destroy. The U.S. Air Force alone has the munitions and bombers capable of destroying such targets.
“I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades,” Trump said. “Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity.”
On June 18, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country would not surrender and warned that any U.S. military action against Iran would bring consequences to the U.S. What those might be remains to be seen.
“This cannot continue,” Trump warned in his address. “There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left—tonight’s was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill, most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.”
The U.S. has taken steps to mitigate potential damage should Iran or its proxy forces attack U.S. forces in the region, moving larger planes away from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which is located directly across the Persian Gulf from Iran, and placing troops on heightened alert, U.S. officials have said.
Republican lawmakers praised Trump’s decision to strike Iran.
“The President made the correct decision to strike Iran’s nuclear sites,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a statement. “Iran made the choice to continue its pursuit of a nuclear weapon and would only be stopped by force. It would be a grave mistake to attempt any retaliation against our forces or homeland.”
But some Democrats were critical, saying Trump rushed into the conflict without Congress’s authorization.
“The American public is overwhelmingly opposed to the U.S. waging war on Iran,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Vice Presidential candidate, wrote on social media. “And the Israeli Foreign Minister admitted yesterday that Israeli bombing had set the Iranian nuclear program back ‘at least two or three years.’ So what made Trump recklessly decide to rush and bomb today? Horrible judgment. I will push for all Senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war.”