WASHINGTON (AP) —The U.S. military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel’s effort to decapitating Iran's nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict. (click the videos below to watch)
The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.
But U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.
President Donald Trump announced the strikes. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that attacks targeted the country’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. The agency did not elaborate. Iran's foreign minister said Iran reserves the right to retaliate.
Here is the latest:
A Pentagon-provided map shows the path of B-2 bombers
A Pentagon-provided map of the flight path taken by B-2 stealth bombers indicates that their approach to Iran took them over the Mediterranean and then over Israel, Jordan and Iraq.
It is not immediately clear when those three countries were made aware of the flights. Israel has said the U.S. strikes were carried out in coordination with its military. The U.S. said the strikes did not involve Israeli jets.
The Pentagon released the map to journalists as it gave details of the mission, which it described as causing “extremely severe damage and destruction” to three Iranian nuclear sites.
US and Iranian officials say both countries are exchanging messages
Hours after Iran’s top diplomat disclosed that the line of communication between Washington and Tehran remains open, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed his remarks in a press conference.
“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,” Hegseth said.
US military increases protective measures for US troops in the Middle East
As the U.S. and the region await Iran’s response to the overnight strikes, Hegseth said that military generals have elevated force protection measures across the region, especially in Iraq, Syria, and the Persian Gulf.
“Our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which would be an incredibly poor choice,” Hegseth told reporters.
A maritime center warns of risks to US-linked ships
A Mideast-based maritime center overseen by the U.S. military warned Sunday that there’s a “high” risk to U.S.-associated ships after the American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
“The threat to U.S.-associated commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is currently assessed as HIGH,” the Joint Maritime Information Center, which is overseen by the U.S. Navy, wrote in an advisory to shippers.
“This categorization follows U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and Houthi rhetoric directly targeting the U.S.-associated maritime assets,” it said. Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saturday said they would attack U.S.-associated ships if America attacked Iran.
Pentagon stresses that ‘regime change’ was not goal of Iranian strike
The Trump administration said that its attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities was not about toppling the country’s government.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Sunday news briefing.
Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that the goal of “Operation Midnight Hammer” had destroyed the nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
“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.
Hegseth says US military used decoys and deception in Iran attack
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Sunday that despite a surprise attack overnight on Iranian nuclear sites, America “does not seek war.”
Hegseth said it was important to note that U.S. strikes did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people, a veiled effort to indicate to Iran that they don’t want retaliation on American targets in the region.
Hegseth said that a choice to move a number of B-2 bombers from their base in Missouri earlier Saturday was meant to be a decoy to throw off Iranians.
He added that the U.S. used other methods of deception as well, deploying fighters to protect the B-2 bombers that dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on two of Iran’s most powerful nuclear sites. He said that all of these tactics helped the U.S. drop the bombs without tipping off Iran’s fighter jets or its air missile systems.
Iranian president condemns US strikes
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday condemned the U.S. attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites.
“This aggression showed that the United States is the primary instigator of the Zionist regime’s hostile actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Pezeshkian said Sunday. “Although they initially tried to deny their role, after our armed forces’ decisive and deterrent response and the Zionist regime’s clear incapacity, they were inevitably forced to enter the field themselves.”
Pezeshkian urged the public to come together in the face of the attacks from Israel and the U.S.
Explosions heard in Bushehr, home to Iran's only nuclear plant
Explosions boomed Sunday afternoon in the Iranian port city of Bushehr, three semiofficial Iranian media outlets reported. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts.
Bushehr is home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, which is run with Russian assistance. Iranian authorities have not reported any problem at the plant.
Meanwhile, explosions also struck the city of Yazd in central Iran, with some suggesting it came from Israeli airstrikes targeting a power plant and a military garrison.
Iran's top diplomat says he'll meet Putin in Moscow on Sunday
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, responding to a question from a Russian outlet, said he’ll travel to Moscow later on Sunday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, after the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites.
“We enjoy a strategic partnership and we always consult with each other and coordinate our positions,” he said, referring to Russia.
Iran's foreign minister says diplomacy not an option after US strikes
“The warmongering and a lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far reaching implications of its act of aggression,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a news briefing at a conference in Turkey.
Araghchi said while the “door to diplomacy” should always be open, “this is not the case right now.
Araghchi said that there is “no red line” that the U.S. has not crossed in its recent actions against the Islamic Republic.
“And the last one and the most dangerous one was what happened only last night when they crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities only,” he said.
Head of the Red Cross says ‘the world cannot absorb limitless war’
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that the escalation in the Middle East risks “engulfing the region — and the world — in a war with irreversible consequences.”
“The world cannot absorb limitless war. Upholding international humanitarian law is not a choice — it is an obligation,” Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement.