The U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites overnight involved 125 aircraft and a decoy , Pentagon officials said Sunday, as the B-2 bombers that attacked flew from Missouri while a different set of B-2s flew west over the Pacific to throw off Iran. All three sites sustained severe damage , they said, though experts said there wasn’t a reliable assessment of the damage yet.

Washington said it has sent messages to Tehran urging Iran to engage in peace talks, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday cast doubt on the short-term prospects of a diplomatic solution.

The sites hit— Fordow , Natanz and Isfahan—represent the core of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure . ​The U.S. bombers dropped bunker-busting bombs called GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators for the first time in warfare.

The latest turn in the conflict has exacerbated widespread anxieties in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Oman joined the head of the United Nations in condemning the U.S. strikes, reflecting fears that the exchange of fire could now spiral out of control.

U.S. forces in the region are on high alert, the Pentagon said. Iran had said it would strike at American troops if the U.S. got involved in the conflict.

Iran’s foreign minister plans to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and confer with him about next steps.

Oil futures are set to rise when trading resumes later Sunday, analysts said, with the full impact on energy markets dependent on how Iran responds to the U.S. strikes. Tanker owners are waiting to see if Iran follows through with threats to disrupt shipping at the Strait of Hormuz.

In its first missile attack since the U.S. strike, Iran injured 16 people in Israel. Emergency services were responding to at least 10 impact sites.

What we know about US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities

2 hours ago Share Save Thomas Mackintosh & Nadine Yousif BBC News Share Save

Reuters This satellite image shows the Fordo nuclear facility in Iran on 14 June

President Donald Trump says the US has carried out a “successful” bombing attack on three nuclear sites in Iran and said they have been “obliterated”. Israel says they were in “full co-ordination” with the US in planning the strikes. Iranian officials have confirmed the facilities were struck but denied it had suffered a major blow. The strikes mark a significant escalation in the ongoing war between Iran and Israel. Here’s what we know.

What has the US bombed, and what weapons did it use?

US Gen Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said Operation Midnight Hammer involved 125 US military aircraft including seven B-2 stealth bombers. One of the targets was Fordo – a uranium enrichment plant hidden in a remote mountainside that is vital to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The US said it also hit two other nuclear sites – at Natanz and Isfahan. Caine said initial assessments indicate all three Iranian nuclear sites “sustained extreme damage and destruction”.

Hidden away in a mountainside south of Tehran, Fordo is believed to be deeper underground than the Channel Tunnel connecting the UK and France. Due to Fordo’s depth below ground only the US has the kind of “bunker buster” bomb big enough to penetrate the site – the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). It weighs 13,000kg (30,000lb) and is able to drop through about 18m (60ft) of concrete or 61m (200ft) of earth before exploding, according to experts. Due to the depths of Fordo’s tunnels, the MOP is not guaranteed to be successful, but it is the only bomb that could come close. Caine confirmed during the Pentagon briefing that between the seven B-2 Spirit bombers 14 MOP bombs were among “75 precision-guided weapons” used in the strikes against Iran. Follow live: US attacks Iran nuclear sites

Israel-Iran: How did latest conflict start and where could it lead?

Iran’s secretive nuclear site that only a US bomb could hit

What is known about the impact of the attacks?

Gen Caine has said it will take some time to fully assess the extent of the damage caused by the US attack. “Final battle damage will take some time but an initial battle damage assessment indicates that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” he said. The Iranian Atomic Energy Organization said the bombing of the three nuclear sites was a “barbaric violation” of international law. Both Saudi Arabia and the UN’s nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say there has been no increase in radiation levels after the attack. The deputy political director of Iran’s state broadcaster, Hassan Abedini, said Iran had evacuated these three nuclear sites a “while ago”. Appearing on state-run TV, he said Iran “didn’t suffer a major blow because the materials had already been taken out”.

How might Iran retaliate?

Within the hours of the US bombing, Iran launched a fresh barrage of missiles which hit parts of Tel Aviv and Haifa. At least 86 people were injured, officials said. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi condemned the US strike and said Tehran reserved the right to respond. He said Trump had “betrayed” Americans who had been promised an end to US involvement in Middle East wars. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Iran must now choose between three strategic courses of action in response to the US attack overnight: Do nothing. This could spare it from further US attacks. It could even choose the diplomatic route and re-join negotiations with the US. But doing nothing makes the Iranian regime look weak, especially after all its warnings of dire repercussions if the US did attack. It may decide the risk of weakening its grip on its population outweighs the cost of further US attacks

Retaliate hard and fast. Iran still has a substantial arsenal of ballistic missiles after manufacturing and hiding these away for years. It has a target list of around 20 US bases to choose from in the broader Middle East. It could also launch “swarm attacks” on US Navy warships using drones and fast torpedo boats

Retaliate later at a time of its own choosing. This would mean waiting until the current tension has subsided and launching a surprise attack when US bases were no longer on maximum alert

What did Donald Trump say and how have US politicians reacted?

Posting on his Truth Social platform at 19:50 local time (00:50 BST), Trump confirmed the strikes on Fordo, Natanz, and Esfahan. Just over two hours later and flanked by Vice-President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump made a televised address. He said that future attacks would be “far greater” unless Iran reached a diplomatic solution. “Remember, there are many targets left,” he said.

Trump says Iran must make peace or face future attacks after US strikes

Several members of Trump’s Republican Party have posted statements in support of the move including Texas Senator Ted Cruz who “commended” the president. Not every Republican was as supportive with leading Trump backer Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene saying “this is not our fight”. Leading US Democrat Hakeem Jeffries said Trump risked US “entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East”, while others have accused him of bypassing Congress to launch a new war. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders described the US strikes as “grossly unconstitutional” as the president does not have the sole power to formally declare war on another country. Only Congress – lawmakers elected in the House of Representatives and the Senate – can. But the law also states that the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces. That means he can deploy US troops and conduct military operations without a formal declaration of war.

How have world leaders reacted?

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the US took action to “alleviate” what he called the “grave threat” posed by Iran’s nuclear programme. In a statement, he called on Tehran to agree to talks and reach a diplomatic solution. UN secretary general António Guterres said the US air strikes were a dangerous escalation; while European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged all sides to step back and return to the negotiating table. Saudi Arabia has voiced “great concern” while Oman condemned the strikes and called for de-escalation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had spoken to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and called for “dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward”. Russian politician Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said: “Trump, who came in as a peacemaker president, has started a new war for the US. With this kind of success, Trump won’t win the Nobel Peace Prize”.

How did this start?

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As Israel warned of a “prolonged campaign” against Iran and launched a new round of airstrikes on a nuclear facility and missile sites Saturday, a number of critics accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of waging a “war of distraction” as his military continues its slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

Iran’s Health Ministry said Saturday that more than 400 Iranians — the majority of them civilians — have been killed as Israel has struck dozens of targets in recent days, provoking retaliatory missile strikes from Iran. At least 3,056 people have been wounded in Iran. In Israel, officials said at least 24 people had been killed.

The deaths of civilians were made “even more horrible,” said Israeli academic Ori Goldberg, by the fact that Israel began its attacks as “a diversion” — claiming the strikes were necessary to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons even as the Middle Eastern country was negotiating with the U.S. regarding its nuclear program, which it has repeatedly said it uses for peaceful civilian purposes.

“This ‘war’ is an unprovoked, unilateral attack, a criminal act of aggression, and it is meant to distract the world from acting with regard to Israel’s genocide,” said Goldberg. “That is how desperate Israel is.”

Don’t forget Gaza and the West Bank. Don’t fall for Israel’s brazen pyrotechnics in Iran. Israel is delaying and hedging, hemming and hawing, just hoping to confuse the world with discussions on whether Ayatollah Khamenei must die. This is a diversion (and that makes all the… — Ori Goldberg (@ori_goldberg) June 20, 2025

Israel claimed it killed three top commanders in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday — deaths that were not immediately confirmed by Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump delayed announcing a decision earlier this week regarding whether the U.S. military would become directly involved in Israel’s assault on Iran, but on Saturday flight tracking data showed that U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers were headed across the Pacific from the U.S. — days after more warplanes were shown to be flying towards Europe.

The B-2 planes “could be equipped to carry the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs that Mr. Trump is considering deploying against Iran’s underground nuclear facilities in Fordo,” The New York Times reported Saturday. The Fordo facilities are some of Iran’s largest and have not yet been targeted.

Meanwhile, at least 11 more Palestinians were killed in the latest Israeli attacks at aid sites set up by a U.S.- and Israel-backed foundation in Gaza. They were among a total of 26 Palestinians who were killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported.

Israel has continued to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza except at distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is staffed by U.S. security contractors. Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israel at GHF sites since they opened in late May; more than 55,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces since the IDF began bombarding Gaza in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week that the “vast majority” of people who it’s treated at its field hospital since the GHF sites began operating have been wounded while trying to access aid.

The BBC reported Saturday that “in almost all incidents,” eyewitnesses have said the IDF opened fire; in some cases there have also been reports of “local armed gunmen” shooting at crowds of Palestinians.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Netanyahu may incorrectly “think no one will notice what he’s doing in Gaza while he bombs Iran.”

Israel’s Prime Minister may think no one will notice what he’s doing in Gaza while he bombs Iran.

People face starvation. 55,000 killed. Aid workers and doctors turned away at the border. Shooting at innocent people desperate for food.

The world sees you, Benjamin Netanyahu. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 20, 2025

On Thursday, journalist Samira Mohyeddin noted that Israel also bombed the Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least 13 people in makeshift tents.

“While Israel continues to try and avert the world’s eyes towards its war of distraction on Iran, its genocide pushes on with ferocity in Gaza,” said Mohyeddin.

Israeli academic Shaiel Ben-Ephraim pointed out that Netanyahu has previously sparked “new conflicts to shift the conversation” — attacking the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria.

“Each flare-up acts as a smokescreen, pulling eyes away from the suffering and devastation happening under his command,” said Ben-Ephraim. “Now, Iran is his latest and most effective diversion. This isn’t accidental. It’s a calculated move to fracture international attention and ease the pressure on him.”

“Netanyahu doesn’t just need to be voted out; he should be brought to The Hague to face justice for the death and destruction he’s unleashed.”

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A sweeping U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has left many Iranians deeply worried about a widening conflict — as Tehran said it reserves “all options” to respond and accused Washington of scuttling diplomatic efforts. After President Donald Trump said in a Saturday night address that Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities were “obliterated,” Iran’s top diplomat warned of “everlasting consequences” to what he called “outrageous” events. “Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X, later accusing Washington of sabotaging talks after a recent meeting with European ministers.

Trump did not cite evidence of the strikes’ impact, and nuclear weapons experts said an independent assessment would not be possible until satellite images were available.

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While Iran’s government has not yet offered a damage assessment, some local officials downplayed the impact, saying the nuclear facilities that were struck had been evacuated and that nuclear material was moved elsewhere. Manan Raeisi, an Iranian lawmaker representing Qom — where the heavily fortified Fordow site is located — told state media the damage was “quite superficial.” Araghchi said at a news conference Sunday he did not have “exact information about the level of damages.”

Trump’s decision to strike Fordow — as well as Iran’s main uranium enrichment site, Natanz, and the Isfahan facility — has raised fears that the escalating tensions could plunge Iran into a deadlier, more destabilizing conflict after trading strikes with Israel for over a week.

“The fact that America has entered this war is really a shock for all of us,” said a woman who fled her home in Tehran for Iran’s central Isfahan province. Like others, she spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.

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“If, in the first days of the war, people thought that there would be some limits, that they’ll return again to negotiations, right now, the main dread is that this war will stretch on,” she said.

A businessman in Tehran said Iranians were now bracing for more economic repercussions if the conflict stretches on much longer. Already in the past week, Iranian businesses were seeing sharply reduced revenue and beginning talk of layoffs, he said. “It’s a mix of despair and fear right now,” he said.

Iran has not specified how it will respond but has previously threatened to retaliate against U.S. bases in the region and withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a move that would make it more difficult to monitor and verify the civilian nature of Iran’s nuclear program.

As Tehran considers its options, the region is bracing for a possible Iranian military retaliation. Amid mounting indications of a possible U.S. intervention, Iranian officials warned last week that the region’s U.S. bases would be considered “legitimate targets” for retaliation.

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Arab officials in the region were engaged in high-level diplomacy in the lead-up to the attacks to prevent further escalation, encouraging Iran and the United States to return to the negotiating table. Iranian officials have previously said they are prepared to talk with the United States but insisted that Israeli strikes cease before formal negotiations could begin.

Trump warned in a social media post about the strikes that if Iran retaliates against the United States, it would be “MET WITH FORCE FAR GREATER THAN WHAT WAS WITNESSED TONIGHT,” adding that “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”

The International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi called for an emergency meeting on Monday in an X post “in light of the urgent situation in Iran.” No increased levels of radiation were detected at the sites that were struck, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s statement.

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Inside Iran, a near-complete internet blackout imposed last week appeared to ease on Sunday but has not lifted completely.

People who fled Tehran are wondering when they can return to their homes and worry that water and electricity might get cut off as part of prolonged fighting, said the Iranian woman. “These have become much more serious concerns,” she said, adding that she and her family are so afraid that gasoline supplies would be affected that they don’t dare to drive anywhere, choosing to walk instead.

The businessman in Tehran said Iranians had for years imagined the possibility of an American attack and saw it as a sort of “final stage,” indicating an imminent, more dangerous phase of conflict.

“From a mental perspective, people feel that they’ve entered the final stage that they always feared,” he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, directly joining Israel’s war aimed at decapitating 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.

Watch President Donald Trump’s remarks in the video player above.

Addressing the nation from the White House, President Donald Trump said Iran’s key nuclear sites were “completely and fully obliterated.” He also warned Tehran against carrying out retaliatory attacks against the U.S., saying Iran has a choice between “peace or tragedy.”

READ MORE: Does Trump have the authority to order U.S. strikes on Iran?

Iran’s nuclear agency confirmed that attacks hit its Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz atomic sites, but insisted that its work will not be stopped.

The decision to directly involve the U.S. in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that aimed to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound (13,500-kilogram) bunker buster bomb they alone can carry 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 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.”

Trump added in a later post: “This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!”

Israeli Prime Minister 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,” he said. Netanyahu said the U.S. “has done what no other country on earth could do.”

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 had spoken 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.

The strikes are a perilous decision, as Iran has pledged to retaliate if the U.S. joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally. He won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.

READ MORE: Trump’s decision to strike Iran may draw more criticism from MAGA anti-interventionists

Trump told reporters Friday that he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran, saying it’s “the last thing you want to do.” He had previously indicated that he would make a final choice over the course of two weeks.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States on Wednesday that 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 has vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, and he had initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country’s leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully.

The Israeli 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.”

The prospect of a wider war loomed. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would resume attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joined 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 that the U.S. had begun “assisted departure flights,” the first from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump planned to make his decision on the strikes within two weeks. Instead, he struck just two days later.

Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran’s nuclear program, perhaps permanently.

WATCH: How Israel’s strikes have damaged Iran’s nuclear capabilities

The Israelis say their offensive has already crippled Iran’s air defenses, allowing them to already significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites.

But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel appealed to Trump for the bunker-busting American bomb known as the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The bomb is currently delivered only by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is only found in the American arsenal.

If deployed in the attack, it would be the first combat use of the weapon.

The bomb carries a conventional warhead, and is believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has 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 another Iranian nuclear site, Natanz, on a centrifuge site have caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area, the IAEA has said.

Trump’s decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes 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.

For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.

The U.S. in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian attacks.

All the while, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a “second chance” for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said in a social media posting. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

The military showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

The 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 decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.

Trump has bristled at criticism from some of his MAGA faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars.

Madhani reported from Washington. Rising reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Iran; Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Matthew Lee and Josh Boak in Washington; and Farnoush Amiri and Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.