US launches air strikes against nuclear sites in Iran

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Donald Trump said that the US struck three nuclear sites in Iran, drawing America into another war in the Middle East.

The president said US planes dropped bombs on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, joining Israel’s aerial campaign against the Islamic republic.

The decision to strike Iran marks a potential turning point in Trump’s presidency after he campaigned for his second term on a pledge to be a peacemaker who ends “forever wars”.

The attack also brings the risk of Iranian retaliation against the US, especially military bases and ships in the region, along with other interests such as oil supplies.

It is also represents a political gamble for the president, whose Maga base is bitterly divided between hawks who did not want to see the US enter war with Iran, and those who believe the US should stay out of foreign conflicts.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday evening after holding a national security meeting at the White House.

“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home,” he said.

Iranian officials confirmed the strike on three nuclear sites, according to state media.

The attack comes after two decades of debate in the US about whether to attack Iran, and seven years after Trump pulled his country out of a nuclear pact with Tehran agreed by President Barack Obama.

During his presidential campaign last year, Trump pitched himself as a leader who had not, and would not, start new wars. But the strikes on Saturday have upended those claims.

Trump said he would address the nation later on Saturday night.

The US president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke after the strikes, according to a senior White House official. The US told Israel about its plan to bomb the nuclear facilities ahead of time, the official added.

Iran’s adviser to the speaker of parliament said that Tehran had been anticipating an attack on Fordow.

“From Iran’s perspective, nothing too strange has happened”, Mahdi Mohammadi wrote on X.

“For several nights, Iran has been waiting for an attack on Fordow. The site has been evacuated for a while now and has not faced irreversible damage from the attack.”

After at first appearing to distance himself from the conflict, Trump has in recent days been deliberating over whether to involve the US military in Israel’s effort to dismantle Iran’s nuclear programme. On Thursday, he appeared to offer Iran a two-week window to reach a diplomatic solution and avert an attack from the US, but that reprieve ended up being far shorter.

Joseph Votel, a retired general who led US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said Trump and his team had engaged in a deliberate effort to conceal the timing of the attack, including the president’s two-week timeline.

“It is pretty clear that has been a deception plan in place,” said Votel who served as Centcom commander for the first two years of Trump’s first term.

Trump indicated that he believed the strikes could end the conflict.

“IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR”, Trump said in a second Truth Social post. “This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD.”

The US had earlier moved B-2 stealth bombers, which were believed to be headed for a base in Guam. American “bunker-buster” bombs carried by the B-2 were considered the best chance of destroying Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, which is buried deep under a mountain.

Republican foreign policy hawks in Congress cheered the president’s military move. US senator Lindsey Graham said “this was the right call. The regime deserves it”. Senator Jim Risch, chair of the powerful Senate foreign relations committee, cheered Trump’s “decisive action” to assist Israel, saying: “This is not the start of a forever war. There will not be American boots on the ground in Iran.”

Democratic US senator John Fetterman also praised Trump, saying it “was the correct move” by the president.

But Republican representative Thomas Massie said the decision “is not Constitutional”.