The US has said that 7 B-2 stealth bombers were used to strike Iranian nuclear sites, which saw little response by Iran’s military, top general Dan Caine said on Sunday.
Earlier, the US defense chief said on Sunday that strikes ordered by President Donald Trump overnight had “devastated” Iran’s nuclear program and urged Iranian leaders to seek peace to avoid further attacks.
“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing, adding that the operation “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”
Trump “seeks peace, and Iran should take that path,” Pete Hegseth said.
The US operation against Iran, codenamed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” involved more than 125 aircraft and a deception operation that saw bombers deployed over the Pacific as a “decoy,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters on Sunday.
The Operation Midnight Hammer involved seven stealth B-2 bombers.
Bombers dropped more than a dozen 30,000-pound MOP bombs on two Iranian nuclear facilities, Fordow and Natanz, Caine said.
Tomahawk missiles were launched at Isfahan.
“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission. We retained the element of surprise,” Caine added.
Meanwhile, Iranian media reported that a “massive explosion was heard” Sunday in Bushehr province, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, hours after the US bombed nuclear sites across the country.
Shargh newspaper reported the blast, while the Fars news agency said two locations in the city were attacked by Israel. Iranian news agencies also reported strikes in Yazd province. The UN’s nuclear watchdog warned the day before that striking the Bushehr plant would trigger a “very high release of radioactivity”.
Earlier, the United States had deployed B-2 Spirit stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to the strategic airbase in Guam, a key US military outpost in the Pacific.
The deployment of strategic US bombers comes as the Israel-Iran war entered its second week on Friday. Earlier, the White House said that President Donald Trump is expected to decide within the next two weeks whether to launch a military strike on Iran.
The US is moving B-2 bombers to the Pacific island of Guam, two U.S. officials told Reuters on June 21. However, it is not yet clear if the deployment is tied to the Israel-Iran war.
The flight tracking data showed at least two separate flights of B-2 Spirit bombers, using the call signs Mytee 11 and Mytee 21, departing the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri overnight. The stealth bombers were joined by aerial refueling tankers.
Israeli Army ‘Checking’ Results
The Israeli military said Sunday it was checking the results of a US bombing raid on the deeply buried Iranian nuclear facility in Fordo, while continuing its own offensive against Tehran.
Asked whether Iran had removed enriched uranium from Fordo or if it had been buried under the rubble in the overnight US strikes, military spokesman Effie Defrin told reporters it was “too soon” to know.
“We are constantly checking the situation. It is too soon to determine. I suppose we will know later on,” he said during a televised briefing.
Israel carried out a fresh wave of attacks on Iran on Sunday morning, including the targeting of missile launchers, the military said.”We are continuing and are determined to achieve the objectives of the operation: eliminating the existential threat to the state of Israel, damaging Iran’s nuclear programme and destroying its missile system,” Defrin added.
Israel launched an unprecedented large-scale attack on Iran on June 13, with the stated aim of preventing the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon — a goal the Islamic Republic has consistently denied pursuing. Its military has struck hundreds of military sites or facilities linked to Iran’s nuclear programme, assassinated leaders of its armed forces, and killed around ten nuclear scientists.
Iranian-launched missiles and drones have killed 25 people in Israel, according to official figures.
In Iran, the Israeli strikes killed more than 400 people and wounded 3,056, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry on Saturday.
Did American Strikes Succeed?
The United States’ strikes on Sunday on Iranian nuclear sites raised two major questions: how effective were they, and what will Iran do next?
US President Donald Trump said the air raids “totally obliterated” the main nuclear sites, calling them a “spectacular military success”. So far, Tehran has given little away about its response, although Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the United States had “crossed a very big red line”.
What’s The Impact?
The United States targeted Iran’s three main nuclear sites, including Fordo, a uranium enrichment facility buried 90 metres (about 300 feet) underground. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes “devastated the Iranian nuclear programme”.
The extent of the damage has not been confirmed, but there is speculation that nuclear material had already been moved away.
Heloise Fayet, a nuclear expert at the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales, said satellite images showing activity around Fordo “suggest enriched uranium stock may therefore have been transferred to sites not monitored by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)”.
“We previously had knowledge, albeit imperfect, of the programme thanks to the agency’s inspections; now no inspections are possible,” she told AFP.
“As for Iran’s technical expertise, it cannot be destroyed, knowing that thousands of people have participated in Iran’s nuclear programme.”
Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at King’s College London, called the US action a “high-risk operation that delivers unpredictable outcomes”, given the facility was deep underground.
“Trump has been using OSINT (open-source intelligence) accounts to say Fordo is gone while the Iranians claim there is only surface-level destruction.”
Ali Vaez, Iran project director for the International Crisis Group, said destroying Fordo “won’t necessarily end Iran’s nuclear programme.
“Tehran has produced hundreds of advanced centrifuges in the past few years that are stored in unknown locations,” he said.
Iran’s Next Move
According to Krieg, Iran will seek a “calibrated response — loud enough to resonate, but measured enough to contain”.
Michael A. Horowitz, a geopolitics and security analyst, said its options included attacking US assets, closing the Strait of Hormuz — a vital conduit for the world oil trade — or even attacking energy facilities in the Gulf, which hosts several US military bases.
“None of those are good options that achieve anything — this is mostly about saving face,” he posted on X.
“The risks, on the other hand, are great.”
However, Horowitz said there were other ways to respond, including a limited retaliation against the US before returning to strikes against Israel and finally negotiating a settlement.
The Iranian government now realises that its very existence is at stake, said Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at Chatham House think-tank, casting it back to the days of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
“It’s survival mode,” he said, predicting “more violence” in the short term with the prospect of a “managed de-escalation” and eventual negotiations.
Hamidreza Azizi Ali, visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said Iran might even allow Trump a “symbolic win” and retaliate against Israeli targets instead.
“This keeps Washington out of the war while intensifying pressure on Tel Aviv. The risk of drawing the US further in would now rest on Trump’s next move,” he posted on X.
“If Trump continues to strike Iran without new provocation, it looks more like going to war on Israel’s behalf. That’s politically costly, given domestic opposition to war with Iran.”
Meanwhile, Iran could deny knowledge of what happened to its enriched uranium, avoiding IAEA inspections, and later leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“Trump may have scored a tactical win, but if Iran plays this smart, they hand him a political grenade,” Ali wrote.
“All while shifting the nuclear game into murkier, more dangerous territory.”
Via: Agence France-Presse
