RALEIGH — President Donald Trump announced Saturday night that the U.S. had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump said in part in a post on social media. “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.”
Trump addressed the nation a few hours later, giving remarks that lasted under four minutes. Joining him were Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” Trump said. “Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
In his address, Trump also thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, “We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.”
Netanyahu also gave an address, both congratulating and thanking Trump and the United States.
“Congratulations, President Trump,” Netanyahu said. “Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history.
“President Trump and I often say, ‘Peace through strength. First comes strength, then comes peace.’ And tonight, President Trump and the United States acted with a lot of strength.”
The military action was dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” according to a briefing given by Hegseth at the Pentagon at 8 a.m. Sunday.
“As President Trump has stated, the United States does not seek war, but let me be clear: we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth also said the mission “was not and has not been about regime change,” and that communications with Iran were occurring.
“I can only confirm that there are both public and private messages being directly delivered to the Iranians in multiple channels, giving them every opportunity to come to the table,” said Hegseth. “They understand precisely what the American position is, precisely what steps they can take to allow for peace, and we hope they do so.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine gave details on the mission, which began before midnight Eastern Standard Time on Friday and carried into Saturday.
Per Caine, B-2 bombers were launched from the U.S., with some heading west as a decoy.
“At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States,” Caine told reporters. “As part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise, part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy — a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington and in Tampa.”
Specifically, seven U.S. B-2 Spirit bombers entered Iranian airspace and dropped more than a dozen 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs on two Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow and Natanz.
The MOPs, or “bunker buster” bombs, all hit their targets, Caine said.
At approximately 5 p.m. U.S. EST on Saturday, a U.S. submarine “launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets” at the Isfahan nuclear site.
An hour and 40 minutes later, the lead B-2 Spirit bomber launched two bunker-buster bombs at the Fordow nuclear site. Caine indicated that the remaining bombers hit their targets sometime between 6:40 p.m. and 7:05 p.m.”
Caine also said that, to their knowledge, none of the U.S. bombers were hit by any fire from the Iranians.
“Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine said.
