U.S. used bombs, missiles, deception in attacks on Iran nuclear sites, defence secretary says
Pete Hegseth says Operation Midnight Hammer didn't target Iran's troops or citizens
The latest:
- Trump says stealth bombers hit sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
- Tehran says U.S. has 'launched a dangerous war against Iran.'
- Netanyahu praises U.S. decision that 'will change history.'
- UN secretary general brands U.S. decision as 'dangerous escalation.'
- International Atomic Energy Agency to hold emergency meeting, says no signs of radioactive contamination detected.
- EU foreign policy chief says foreign ministers will gather on Monday.
- U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says the plan to strike Iran took months of positioning.
- Operation Midnight Hammer included 14 bunker-buster bombs, over 2 dozen Tomahawk missiles, 125 military aircraft.
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday that U.S. military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities took months of positioning, and claimed they had obliterated Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The strikes included 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and more than 125 military aircraft in an operation the top U.S. general, Dan Caine, said was named Operation Midnight Hammer.
Hegseth said the U.S. also used methods of deception, deploying other fighter jets to protect the B-2 bombers that dropped the bunker-buster bombs on the three nuclear sites: Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. All of these tactics, he said, helped the U.S. drop the bombs without tipping off Iran's fighter jets or its air missile systems.
The operation pushes the Middle East to the brink of a major new conflagration in a region already aflame for more than 20 months with wars in Gaza and Lebanon and a toppled dictator in Syria.
Hegseth called the operation an incredible and overwhelming success.
"We devastated the Iranian nuclear program," he told reporters in a briefing from the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., claiming Iran's nuclear ambitions have been "obliterated."
He said the strikes did not target Iranian troops or citizens. "The operation President [Donald] Trump planned was bold and it was brilliant, showing the world that American deterrence is back. When this president speaks, the world should listen."
Hegseth also said Sunday that despite the attacks, the U.S. "does not seek war."
He said 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 the Iranians.
Iran's president urges public to come together
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed the U.S. strikes hit the three sites, but insisted its nuclear program won't be stopped.
Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the three locations following the strikes.
The IAEA wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that there has been "no increase in off-site radiation levels" after the strikes, but it would continue to monitor the situation.
"This aggression showed that the United States is the primary instigator of the Zionist regime's hostile actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran," Iranian President Masoud 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."
- This afternoon, Cross Country Checkup will have a two-hour special about the U.S. bombing and its entry into the Israel-Iran war. What questions do you have? How does this affect you? You can share your thoughts here.
Pezeshkian urged the public to come together in the face of the attacks from Israel and the U.S.
Earlier, Tehran accused Washington of launching "a dangerous war" after Trump said the U.S. "completely and fully obliterated" the nuclear sites.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. had "betrayed diplomacy" with the military strikes in support of Israel, which has been engaged in a nine-day war with Iran in an attempt to destroy its nuclear program.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to resist with full force against U.S. military aggression and the crimes committed by this rogue regime, and to defend Iran's security and national interests," the ministry said in a lengthy statement.
After announcing the attacks on social media, Trump gave an address to the nation from the White House, saying, "There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran."
It was not clear if the U.S. would continue attacking Iran alongside Israel. Trump, who acted without congressional authorization, warned there would be additional strikes if Tehran retaliated against U.S. forces.
Hours after the American attacks, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched 40 missiles at Israel, including its Khorramshahr-4, which can carry multiple warheads. Israeli authorities reported more than 80 people suffered mostly minor injuries, and there were reports of damage in the cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv and along the coast.
Following the barrage, Israel's military said it had "swiftly neutralized" the Iranian missile launchers that had fired and it had begun a series of strikes aimed at military targets in western Iran.
Israel praises U.S. actions
Iran has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon, making it an imminent threat.
The decision to directly involve the U.S. in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel that significantly degraded Iran's air defences and offensive missile capabilities, and damaged its nuclear enrichment facilities.
In the wake of the U.S. attacks, Israel announced it had closed its airspace to both inbound and outbound flights.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump's decision to attack in a video message directed at the American president.
"Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history."
Netanyahu said the U.S. "has done what no other country on Earth could do."
Israeli military spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel was still assessing the damage to Iran's nuclear sites.
At a media briefing, Defrin said it was too early to know whether enriched material had been removed from the Fordow site before the U.S. strike. Defrin said the strikes were carried out in co-ordination with the Israeli military.
Iran wants an investigation of the U.S. strikes, its nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, said in a letter to IAEA's chief, Rafael Grossi, urging him to condemn the U.S. action and take appropriate measures, according to Iran's SNN news network.
Eslami criticized Grossi for his "inaction and complicity," and added Iran would pursue appropriate legal measures to tackle the matter.
Grossi said Sunday he'd be calling an emergency meeting of his agency's 35-country board of governors.
Canada, other U.S. allies call for return to talks
Among world leaders responding to news of the U.S. attacks were Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
In a post on X, Carney called for negotiations to "reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis."
Carney said Iran's nuclear program "is a grave threat to international security, and Canada has been consistently clear that Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon."
Iran’s nuclear programme is a grave threat to international security, and Canada has been consistently clear that Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. <br> <br>While U.S. military action taken last night was designed to alleviate that threat, the situation in the…
—@MarkJCarneyAlso on X, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said: "Canada continues to support all efforts aimed at de-escalation, protecting civilian lives and restoring stability through diplomacy. We urge parties to return to the negotiating table and reach a resolution to this crisis."
Anand also urged Canadians fleeing Israel and Iran to register with Global Affairs Canada to receive information, including their travel options. Late last week, Ottawa said it was organizing flights as part of its efforts.
Other U.S. allies urging a return to diplomatic talks included British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who warned of escalation beyond the Middle East. The U.K., along with the European Union tried unsuccessfully to broker a diplomatic solution in Geneva last week with Iran.
Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev, who serves as deputy head of President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, said several countries were prepared to supply Tehran with nuclear weapons. Medvedev didn't specify which countries but said the U.S. attack caused minimal damage and would not stop Tehran from pursuing nuclear weapons.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on television later Sunday to speak about the attacks and discounted criticism from other countries.
"And a bunch of these countries putting out statements condemning us, privately, they all agree with us that this needed to be done," Rubio said on Fox News Channel's Sunday Morning Futures. "They got to do what they got to do for their own public relations purposes. But the only people in the world that are unhappy about what happened in Iran last night is the regime in Iran."
He urged Iran to enter direct talks with the U.S. and said Trump's administration has no objection to a civilian nuclear
program.
"Let's talk about how we peacefully resolve this problem."
Trump's decision to attack
The decision to attack was a risky one for Trump, who won the White House partially on the promise of keeping the U.S. out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.
But Trump also vowed he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and had initially said he hoped the threat of force would bring the country's leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully.
For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. In April and again in late May, he persuaded Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.
After Israel began striking Iran, Trump went from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a "second chance" for Iran to make a deal, to delivering explicit threats on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and making calls for Tehran's unconditional surrender.
Trump has bristled at criticism from some supporters who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to those who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars.
Fears of a broader war
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the U.S. attacks a "dangerous escalation," as world leaders began chiming in with calls for diplomacy.
"There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control — with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region and the world," he said in a statement.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who had threatened to resume attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joined Israel's military campaign, called on other Muslim nations to form "one front against the Zionist-American arrogance."
On Wednesday, Khamenei warned the U.S. that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will "result in irreparable damage for them." Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei declared "any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region."
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 865 people and wounded 3,396 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group said of those dead, it identified 363 civilians and 215 security force personnel.
'Tehran is empty; there is no one'
On Sunday, residents fleeing Tehran said many living in the capital had heeded Israeli warnings to leave.
At Turkey's border with Iran, Ferishteh Husseini said residents had left following a warning from Israel to evacuate the city.
"Tehran is empty; there is no one," she said as she crossed into Turkey.
The Israeli airstrikes were mainly targeting military facilities, but many people were still suffering, she said. Husseini said she knew of people were living in groups of 10 to 20 in a single house and supplies were running short.
Another Tehran resident, Emir Rustemi, said he arrived at the border by bus and witnessed several roadblocks on the way.
Behnam Puran, from Tabriz, defended his country's nuclear program.
"We were minding our own business," he said. "We were doing these procedures to gain electricity, not to produce bombs."
With files from CBC News and Reuters