WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Saturday that the U.S. military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel's effort to decapitate the country's nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran's threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.
Iran’s nuclear agency confirmed Sunday that attacks took place on its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz atomic sites, but insisted its work will not be stopped.
“The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran assures the great Iranian nation that despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of thousands of its revolutionary and motivated scientists and experts, it will not allow the development of this national industry, which is the result of the blood of nuclear martyrs, to be stopped,” it said in its statement.
In an address to the nation Saturday night, Trump claimed Iran's key nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated” by the American strikes.
He also warned Tehran against carrying out retaliatory attacks against the U.S., saying Iran has a choice between “peace or tragedy."
His decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of Israeli strikes on Iran that moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.
U.S. and Israeli officials previously said American stealth bombers and a 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.
"We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan," Trump said earlier in a post on social media. "All 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."
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation. But Fox News host Sean Hannity said shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern that he spoke with Trump and that six bunker buster bombs were used on the Fordo facility. Hannity said 30 Tomahawk missiles fired by U.S. submarines 400 miles away struck the Iranian nuclear sites of Natanz and Isfahan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump's decision to attack in a video message directed at the American president.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Wednesday that U.S. strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will "result in irreparable damage for them." And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared "any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region."
Trump, who won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism, told reporters Friday that he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran.
The president also vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. He initially hoped the threat of force would bring the country's leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully.
Israel's military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran's foreign minister warned before the U.S. attack that American military involvement "would be very, very dangerous for everyone."
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen also said they would resume attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joins Israel's military campaign. The Houthis paused such attacks in May under a deal with the U.S.
The U.S. ambassador to Israel announced the U.S. began "assisted departure flights," the first from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza.
At the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers, Trump appears to have made the calculation that Israel's operation softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran's nuclear program, perhaps permanently.
The Israelis say their offensive already crippled Iran's air defenses, allowing them to significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites. Earlier, Israel's military said it struck an Iranian nuclear research facility overnight into Saturday and also killed three senior Iranian commanders.
But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel appealed to Trump for U.S. bunker-busting bombs, the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is currently only delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber found only in the American arsenal.
The bombs are believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet below the surface before exploding.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility.
Previous Israeli strikes at Natanz on a centrifuge site caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area, the IAEA said.
Trump's decision for direct U.S. military intervention came after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program.
A 2015 deal, signed by Iran, U.S. and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018, during his first term.
The war erupted June 13, with Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran's nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 722 people, including 285 civilians, were killed in Iran and more than 2,500 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.
Iran retaliated by firing more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, the Israeli army estimates. Israel's multitiered air defenses shot down most of them, but so far at least 24 people in Israel were killed and more than 1,000 wounded.
Earlier, Israel's defense minister said the military killed a paramilitary Revolutionary Guard commander who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing 20-month war in Gaza.
Iranian officials did not immediately confirm Saeed Izadi's death, but the Qom governor's office said there was an attack on a four-story apartment building and local media reported two people were killed.
Israel also said it killed the commander of the Quds Force's weapons transfer unit, who it said was responsible for providing weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas. Behnam Shahriyari was killed while traveling in western Iran, the military said.
Iranian leaders say IAEA chief Rafael Grossi's statements about the status of Iran's nuclear program prompted Israel's attack. On Saturday, a senior adviser for Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei, Ali Larijani, said on social media, without elaboration, that Iran would make Grossi "pay" once the war is over.