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\u201cWe have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,\u201d Trump said in a post on social media. \u201cAll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said B-2 stealth bombers were used but did not specify which types of bombs were dropped. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation.<\/p>\n
The strikes are a perilous decision for the U.S. as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump politically, having won the White House after campaigning on keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffing at the value of American interventionism.<\/p>\n
Before the U.S. strikes, Israel\u2019s military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran\u2019s foreign minister warned that U.S. military involvement \u201cwould be very, very dangerous for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prospect of a wider war threatened, too. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would resume attacks on U.S.-allied vessels and warships in the Red Sea if the Trump administration actively joins Israel\u2019s military campaign against Iran. The Houthis had paused such attacks in May as part of a deal with the administration.<\/p>\n
The U.S. ambassador to Israel announced the U.S. had begun \u201cassisted departure flights,\u201d the first such flights from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military said it struck an Iranian nuclear research facility overnight and killed three senior Iranian commanders in targeted attacks as it pursued its goal to destroy Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Smoke rose near a mountain in Isfahan, where the province\u2019s deputy governor for security affairs, Akbar Salehi, confirmed Israeli strikes damaged the facility.<\/p>\n
The target was a centrifuge production site, Israel\u2019s military said. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog, confirmed the attack.<\/p>\n
Iran again launched drones and missiles at Israel, but there were no reports of significant damage. <\/p>\n
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines to brief reporters, estimated that Israel\u2019s military has taken out more than half of Iran\u2019s launchers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re making it harder for them to fire toward Israel,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The Israeli military\u2019s chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, later said that Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told the army to be prepared for a \u201cprolonged campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. tankers on the move<\/p>\n
Trump had said only days ago he would put off his decision for up to two weeks. He met with his national security team Saturday shortly before announcing the strikes. <\/p>\n
Earlier Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, \u201cI think that it would be very, very dangerous for everyone\u201d were the U.S. to strike Iran. He spoke on the sidelines of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Turkey. Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue but emphasized that Iran had no interest in negotiating with the U.S. while Israel continues to attack.<\/p>\n
Barring a commando raid or even a nuclear strike, Iran\u2019s underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered out of reach to all but America\u2019s \u201cbunker-buster\u201d bombs. The U.S. has configured and programmed only its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver such bombs, according to the Air Force.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, U.S. aerial refueling tankers were spotted on commercial flight trackers flying patterns consistent with escorting aircraft from the central U.S. to the Pacific. B-2 bombers are based in Missouri.<\/p>\n
The war erupted June 13, with Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran\u2019s nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 722 people, including 285 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,500 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.<\/p>\n
One Tehran resident, Nasrin, writhed in her hospital bed as she described how a blast threw her against a wall in her apartment. \u201cI\u2019ve had five surgeries. I think I have nothing right here that is intact,\u201d she said Saturday. Another resident, Shahram Nourmohammadi, said he had been making deliveries when \u201csomething blew up right in front of me\u201d at an intersection.<\/p>\n
A number of Iranians have fled the country. \u201cEveryone is leaving Tehran right now,\u201d said one who did not give his name after crossing into Armenia.<\/p>\n
For many Iranians, updates remained difficult. Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org said Saturday that limited internet access had again \u201ccollapsed.\u201d A nationwide internet shutdown has been in place for several days.<\/p>\n
Iran has retaliated by firing more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Israel\u2019s multi-tiered air defenses have shot down most of them, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded.<\/p>\n
Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only nonnuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60% \u2014 a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons program, but has never acknowledged it.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel\u2019s military operation will continue \u201cfor as long as it takes\u201d to eliminate what he called the existential threat of Iran\u2019s nuclear program and ballistic missile arsenal.<\/p>\n
No date was set for a new round of talks after ones in Geneva on Friday failed to produce a breakthrough.<\/p>\n
More attacks on Iranian military commanders<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s defense minister said Saturday the military has killed a paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing 20-month war in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Iranian officials did not immediately confirm Saeed Izadi\u2019s death, but the Qom governor\u2019s office said there had been an attack on a four-story apartment building and local media reported two people had been killed.<\/p>\n
Israel also said it killed the commander of the Quds Force\u2019s weapons transfer unit, who it said was responsible for providing weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Behnam Shahriyari was killed while traveling in western Iran, the military said.<\/p>\n
Iran threatens U.N. nuclear watchdog head<\/p>\n
Iranian leaders say IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi\u2019s statements about the status of Iran\u2019s nuclear program have prompted Israel\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, a senior advisor for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, Ali Larijani, said in a social media post, without elaboration, that Iran would make Grossi \u201cpay\u201d once the war is over.<\/p>\n
Grossi warned Friday at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council against attacks on Iran\u2019s nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity,\u201d Grossi said. \u201cThis is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be most serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel has not targeted Iran\u2019s nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country\u2019s Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital.<\/p>\n
Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60% and restricting access to its nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n
Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium \u2014 at lower levels \u2014 in recent talks over its nuclear program. But Trump, like Israel, has demanded Iran end its enrichment program altogether. <\/p>\n
Madhani writes for the Associated Press. AP writers David Rising and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul, Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Farnoush Amiri and Samy Magdy in Cairo and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump said Saturday that the U.S. military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel\u2019s effort to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,5247,4526,83,5397,99,2961,5393,5396,224,5337,1802,5394,1408,3546,1807,5395,5399,5398],"class_list":{"0":"post-4053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-drone","11":"tag-gaza-strip","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-isfahan","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-late-attack","17":"tag-lengthy-war","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-military","21":"tag-nuclear-program","22":"tag-official","23":"tag-people","24":"tag-president-trump","25":"tag-saturday","26":"tag-talk","27":"tag-uranium"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114724641465416418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}