Trump goes on another rant about "OBLITERATED" Iranian nuclear facilities
Washington DC - President Donald Trump on Saturday insisted that US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities "completely destroyed" the sites after a report said that some had largely survived.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump repeated his frequent claim that "all three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED."
He claimed it would "take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations."
US bomb and missile attacks struck Iran's nuclear program on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.
The bombings, carried out at the same time as an Israeli campaign of aggression against Iran, were billed by the Trump administration as a knockout blow to a years-long covert effort to build nuclear weapons.
Iran insists it has not tried to weaponize its civilian nuclear power program.
Despite Trump's claims of total success, several outlets have reported leaked intelligence suggesting a hazier picture.
An NBC News report Friday quoted a military damage assessment that only one of the three sites was mostly destroyed.
Two other sites were deemed to be repairable and potentially able to resume uranium enrichment activities within "the next several months," NBC said, citing five current and former US officials aware of the assessment.
Pentagon had also reportedly prepared an option to inflict far greater damage on Iran's facilities through a bombing campaign that would have lasted several weeks, instead of the one-night operation chosen by Trump.
According to the report, citing one current and one former official, Trump rejected the more comprehensive attack plan due to fears of casualties and entanglement in the conflict.
Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS & via REUTERS