Pentagon shows test footage of bunker busters used in Iran strikes

Pentagon leaders person laid retired caller specifications astir subject strategies and explosives to bolster their statement that US attacks destroyed cardinal Iranian nuclear facilities, but small much has emerged connected really acold backmost nan bombing group Tehran's atomic program.

In a uncommon Pentagon news briefing, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, president of nan Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked to displacement nan statement from whether nan atomic targets were "obliterated", arsenic US President Donald Trump has said, to what they portrayed arsenic nan heroism of nan strikes arsenic good arsenic nan extended investigation and mentation that went into carrying them out.

"You want to telephone it destroyed, you want to telephone it defeated, you want to telephone it obliterated — take your word. This was an historically successful attack," Hegseth said successful an often combative convention pinch reporters.

It was nan latest illustration of really Trump has marshalled apical management officials to take sides his claims astir nan effectiveness of nan US strikes.

At liking is nan bequest of nan Republican president's involution successful nan little warfare betwixt Israel and Iran, arsenic good arsenic nan early of American overseas argumentation toward Iran.

Pentagon gives small item connected position of Iran's highly enriched uranium

Hegseth appeared little assured that nan strikes sewage each of Iran's highly enriched atomic material.

Asked many times whether immoderate of it was moved to different locations earlier nan US attack, Hegseth acknowledged that nan Pentagon was "looking astatine each aspects of intelligence and making judge we person a consciousness of what was where".

He added, "I'm not alert of immoderate intelligence that says things were not wherever they were expected to be" aliases that they were moved.

Satellite imagery showed trucks and bulldozers astatine Iran's Fordo uranium enrichment site, nan main target of nan bombings, days earlier nan strikes, which occurred betwixt 2.10am and 2.35am (8.40am and 9.05am AEST) connected Saturday.

Experts said enriched uranium stocks tin beryllium moved successful mini canisters and are difficult to find.

"It would beryllium highly challenging to effort and observe locations wherever Iran whitethorn beryllium hiding highly enriched uranium," Kelsey Davenport, head of nonproliferation argumentation astatine nan nonpartisan Arms Control Association, said.

Trump expressed assurance that uranium was not pulled retired earlier nan attack.

"Nothing was taken retired of facility," he said connected societal media. 

"Would return excessively long, excessively dangerous, and very dense and difficult to move!"

New specifications look connected really nan US carried retired nan attacks

US stealth bombers dropped 12 heavy penetrator bombs, called bunker busters, connected Fordo and 2 connected nan Natanz site, a US charismatic told The Associated Press.

The charismatic said connected nan information of anonymity to talk subject operations.

Hegseth and Caine described 15 years of study and readying going into nan bombing ngo and they showed video of a trial detonation of a "bunker buster" munition, designed to penetrate heavy into mountains.

While Hegseth, a erstwhile Fox News anchor, spent nan bulk of his clip slamming nan media sum and personally insulting reporters who questioned him, Caine stuck to nan subject specifications of nan bombing.

Caine said nan US targeted nan ventilation shafts astatine nan Fordo installation arsenic nan introduction constituent for nan bombs. 

In nan days earlier nan US attack, nan Iranians placed ample actual slabs connected apical of some ventilation routes from nan underground accommodation to effort to protect them, he said.

He said nan first explosive dropped was utilized to destruct nan actual slab, and past 4 of nan bombs were dropped down nan main shaft pinch somewhat different angles to return retired various parts of nan underground facility.

The pilots of nan bombers described nan flash aft nan explosive driblet arsenic "the brightest detonation they had ever seen", Caine said.

He noted it is not his occupation to do nan appraisal of nan damage.

Asked if he has been pressured to supply a much optimistic position of nan results, Caine said no.

"I've ne'er been pressured by nan president aliases nan caput to do thing different than show them precisely what I'm thinking. And that's precisely what I've done," he said.

Caine besides lauded nan troops who remained astatine Al Udeid Air Base successful Qatar erstwhile nan Iran launched its counterattack Monday.

He said conscionable 44 soldiers stayed to run nan 2 Patriot rocket batteries and protect nan full aerial base.

"You cognize that you're going to person astir 2 minutes, 120 seconds, to either win aliases fail," Caine said, adding, "They perfectly crushed it".

Hegseth dismisses first appraisal from nan Pentagon's ain intelligence agency

Hegseth repeated assertions that an early appraisal from nan Defence Intelligence Agency, a portion of nan Defence Department, was preliminary and that nan study acknowledged location was debased assurance and gaps successful information.

Hegseth many times scolded reporters for "breathlessly" focusing connected that appraisal and said specified stories were conscionable attempts to undermine Trump.

That study said that while nan US strikes connected 3 Iranian atomic accommodation did important damage, nan sites were not wholly destroyed and that Tehran's programme was only group backmost by a fewer months.

Hegseth and others person not disputed nan contents of nan DIA study but person focused connected a CIA connection and different intelligence assessments, including those retired of Iran and Israel, that said nan strikes severely damaged nan atomic sites and rendered nan enrichment installation inoperable.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is not now capable to measure nan nonstop harm to nan Fordo site, but nan centrifuges location are "no longer operational", nan UN atomic watchdog's chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told Radio France Internationale.

Trump appeared buoyed by Hegseth's fierce show of loyalty and his repeated attacks connected news organisations during nan briefing.

The president said connected societal media that it was "one of nan greatest, astir professional, and astir 'confirming' News Conferences I person ever seen!"

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