US Strikes Had Limited Impact on Iran’s Nuclear Program, Early Report Shows

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(Bloomberg) — Early intelligence findings suggest US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities had only a limited impact, people familiar with the matter said, challenging President Donald Trump’s claim that the uranium-enrichment sites had been “totally obliterated.”

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A report produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, said the US strike likely did not cripple the core components of Iran’s nuclear program below ground, including its centrifuges, according to a person briefed with the report’s contents who asked not to be identified discussing a private document. 

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Another person familiar with US and European assessments confirmed that finding and described the disruption as temporary.

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There was, however, considerable damage on the surface, with the strikes setting the program back several months to as much as a year, the person briefed on the report’s contents said. 

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The findings comport with open-source satellite imagery that shows new craters, possible collapsed tunnel entrances and holes on top of a mountain ridge but no conclusive evidence that the attack breached the most heavily protected underground facilities.

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CNN reported the contents of the DIA assessment earlier Tuesday. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt didn’t dispute the existence of the assessment but rejected its findings and characterized the leak as an effort to discredit Trump and the US attacks.

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“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” Leavitt wrote on X. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”

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Before the strikes Trump had said Iran was “weeks away” from having a nuclear bomb, though some experts and US intelligence estimates said it could take months or years for the nation to develop a more carefully constructed weapon.

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If the findings bear out, they would undercut claims from the Trump administration and its supporters that the strikes were a historic success and the region is headed toward peace now that the Iranian nuclear threat has been erased. They would also mean the US and Israel might have to consider more attacks even though the administration has trumpeted an Israel-Iran ceasefire and Trump appears ready to move on. Iran denies it wants a nuclear weapon.

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“In a certain and very ironic way, that perfect ‘hit,’ late in the evening, brought everyone together, and the deal was made!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the attack. “IRAN WILL NEVER REBUILD THEIR NUCLEAR FACILITIES!” the president wrote later.

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The findings also don’t account Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency acknowledged five days into the conflict its inspectors had lost track of Iran’s 409 kilograms (902 pounds) of highly-enriched uranium — enough for 10 nuclear warheads should Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opt to pursue weaponization.