Donald Trump has confirmed he ‘completely obliterated’ Iran’s Fordow nuclear site with six massive 30,000-pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs.
Two other nuclear sites in Iran were also ‘wiped out’ with 30 Tomahawk missiles launched from U.S. submarines 400 miles away.
The details were revealed by Sean Hannity of Fox News, who spoke to the president shortly after the strikes.
Hannity added that he had been told by Trump officials that Fordow was ‘gone.’
A U.S. official suggested Fordow had been ‘taken off the table.’
It had previously been suggested that only two bunker busters would be needed to destroy the site.
Trump said B-2 stealth bombers were used to deliver the bunker busters.
Israel had said their offensive already crippled Iran’s air defenses, allowing them to degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites.
However, to demolish the Fordow nuclear fuel enrichment facility, Israel sought assistance from Trump for the American bunker-busting bomb called the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
It uses its weight and kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode.
The bombs can only be delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is only found in the American arsenal.
If the bunker busters were indeed deployed in the attack, it will have been the first combat use of the weapon.
The precision-guided bomb is designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels, according to the U.S. Air Force.
It’s believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet below the surface before exploding.
The bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast.
According to a US official speaking to the New York Times under the condition of anonymity, B-2 stealth bombers departed from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Saturday morning, embarking on a non-stop, 37-hour flight that included multiple mid-air refuelings.
The B-2, which is capable of carrying nuclear arms, is only flown by the Air Force, and is produced by Northrop Grumman.
A United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 bomber
In this photo provided by the U.S. Air Force on May 2, 2023, airmen are seen observing a GBU-57, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri.
The Fordow nuclear site in Iran before it was hit
It first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, and is rarely used by the U.S. military in combat as each aircraft is worth some $1 billion.
The strategic long-range heavy bomber has a range of about 7,000 miles without refueling and 11,500 miles with one refueling, and can reach any point in the world within hours, according to Northrop Grumman.
Prior to the attack in Iran, the military last used the warplane in October of last year to combat Yemen’s Houthi rebels and their underground bunkers. It has dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well.
Trump did not immediately specify what types of bombs were dropped. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation.
Iran has pledged to retaliate if the U.S. joined the Israeli assault.
Trump deployed six bunker busters in Iran
Trump had previously indicated that he would make a final choice on whether to bomb Fordow over the next two weeks.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States on Wednesday that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic would result in ‘irreparable damage’ for America.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared ‘any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.’
Trump has long vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
He had initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country’s leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully.
