Hours after US forces carried out airstrikes on Iran’s three key nuclear sites under Operation Midnight Hammer, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth called the offensive a huge success, claiming the Middle East country’s nuclear programme was “devastated” and “obliterated”.
Earlier on Sunday, US President Donald Trump said the “very successful” strikes had hit the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan nuclear sites in Iran, with Fordow being the primary target.
After a short while following that announcement, Trump addressed the nation, calling the operation a “spectacular military success”. Trump said the mission had achieved its primary goal: the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.
“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Hegseth echoed Trump while speaking at a Pentagon media briefing in Washington, DC on Sunday.
“Last night the US forward command conducted a precision strike in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran- Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan-in order to destroy or severely degrade Iran’s nuclear programme. It was an incredible and overwhelming success,” Hegseth said as he began to brief about the military operation that further escalated the tensions in the Middle East.
He clarified that the operation did not target the Iranin military or the Iranian people.
Reports claimed that US forces dropped six GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs in the airstrikes on Fordow nuclear facility.
The US defence chief reiterated that Trump has made it amply clear since he first became US president that Iran “must not get a nuclear weapon”.
