American Bombing Raids Said To Destroy Iran’s ‘Horribly Destructive Enterprise,’ But Did They Manage To Spirit Away Enriched Uranium Before the Bombers Struck?

As America joins Israel in striking Iranian nuclear sites, President Trump and Prime Minister Netanayhu praised each other for a history-changing American strike that reportedly destroyed three of Iran’s most significant nuclear sites, including the most difficult one to penetrate – the underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow. Three B-2 bombers dropped six maximum ordnance penetrating bombs, known as “bunker busters,” on the deeply-dug Fordow enrichment facility, located on a mountainside near Qom, the holy city for Shiite muslims. Additionally, 30 TLAM Tomahawk missiles were launched from American submarines at another facility, Natanz, while the facility at Isfahan was hit as well. “Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise,” Mr. Trump said in a televised speech to the nation last Saturday evening from the White House. “Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.”He also said that the Islamic Republic, “the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.” Seeking a negotiated end to the conflict has been one constant in Mr. Trump’s policies. Yet, so was his constant vow to deny Iran a nuclear bomb. The question now is whether Iran had managed to remove a meaningful amount of highly enriched uranium from these sites to secret locations for future use. Iranian officials say that much. “Three nuclear facilities, including Fordow, had been evacuated some time ago, and our stockpile of enriched uranium has been removed from these sites,” government-run news agencies said. Yet, the Iranians have been disseminating false information since Israel set out to decisively end the nuclear program last Friday morning. Putting Tehran’s bravado aside, the danger remains. “Israel needs to hunt and destroy” possible missing stockpiles, the founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, David Albright, told the Sun. Israel’s foreign intelligence group, and its American counterparts, the former weapons inspector added, “need time to accomplish this mission.”For more than a week, Israel has pummeled Iran’s nuclear facilities and its ballistic missile capabilities, and especially its missile launchers. It also systematically hunted and killed Iran’s top scientists who helmed the drive to become a nuclear-armed state. Israel had already hit the Natanz, Isfahan, and other nuclear sites, but it lacked the deep penetrating bombs to destroy Fordow. Israeli press sites report that Fordow was completely destroyed by the American B-2 bombers and their 30,000 pound MOP munitions. “I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel,” Mr. Trump said. Mr. Trump added, “I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done, and most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades. Hopefully we will no longer need their services at this capacity. I hope that’s so.”Mr. Netanyahu posted an English-language video, saying, “Congratulations, President Trump. Your bold decision to target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history. In Operation Rising Lion Israel has done truly amazing things, but in tonight’s action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, America has been truly unsurpassed. It has done what no other country on Earth could do.”Iran is now threatening to hit American civilian and military targets. Yet, the Israel Defense Force has significantly degraded its ability to do so, even as Israeli cities have been attacked. Hospitals, mosques, and civilian apartment buildings were destroyed, and dozens of Israelis killed. The United Nations, which has relentlessly condemned Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, directly denounced America for the first time since the Iraq war. “I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today,” Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement. “This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge, and a direct threat to international peace and security.”Several Democrats also denounced Mr. Trump’s action, even as the president reminded the public of the long history of the Islamic Republic’s attacks on American targets. Now that America joined arms to attack that menace, degrading Iran’s nuclear capabilities could be decisive, even as the hunt for the remaining enriched uranium is yet to be fully accounted for. “Now this is not the end,” Prime Minister Winston Churchill said in 1942, as the tide of war against Nazi Germany started to turn. “It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

American Bombing Raids Said To Destroy Iran’s ‘Horribly Destructive Enterprise,’ But Did They Manage To Spirit Away Enriched Uranium Before the Bombers Struck?

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