Pentagon reports its intelligence estimates that Iran’s nuclear facilities were destroyed during ‘bold’ US strikes. Washington, DC – United States military airstrikes against Iran pushed Iran’s nuclear program back by one to two years, the Pentagon has declared, a determination which comes after President Donald Trump stated the programme was “obliterated”.
Defence Department spokesman Sean Parnell on Wednesday said the three Iranian nuclear facilities struck by Washington were destroyed, reaffirming the president’s statement. Parnell commended the strikes as a “bold operation.”
We have pushed back their programme by one to two years at least,” Parnell said in a briefing to reporters. “Intelligence assessments within the department evaluate that.”
Since the US deployed a squadron of B-2 stealth bombers to Iran on June 21, Trump has continually attacked any claims that the attacks did not destroy the nation’s nuclear facilities. He has continued to insist that Iran’s nuclear program has been “obliterated like nobody’s ever seen before”.
An early US intelligence estimate, which was leaked to several media outlets last month, stated that the attacks did not demolish significant elements of Iran’s nuclear program and merely postponed its activity by months.
In turn, Tehran has been evasive about releasing information concerning the status of its nuclear facilities. Iranian officials have stated that the facilities incurred heavy damage in US and Israeli strikes. Last week, however, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stated that Trump had “exaggerated” the effects of the strikes.
No independent evaluation of the consequences of the US attacks has been carried out, which were part of a 12-day Israel-Iran war. Visual estimations based on satellite imagery are unable to determine the extent of damage at the underground facilities, particularly the nation’s largest enrichment plant, Fordow.
