Donald Trump calls ‘obliteration’ an accurate description of damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities

US President Donald Trump challenged Iranian attempts on Sunday to minimize strikes on his nuclear installations, stressing that “obliteration” was a precise description, even if the complete extent of Iran’s nuclear capacity damage was not immediately clear.

“Monumental damage has been caused to all nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. The obliteration is a precise term! The white structure shown is deeply incorporated into the rock, even its roof well below the level of the soil, and completely protected from the flame. The biggest damage took place far below the ground level. Bullseye !!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The US President of General Dan Caine’s joint staff chiefs said Sunday That there were “serious damage and destruction” to the facilities of Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, but did not go so far as to say that Iran’s nuclear capacities had been “erased”.

“The final battle damage will take some time, but the initial battle damage assessments indicate that the three sites have suffered extremely serious damage and destruction,” said Caine.

Meanwhile, the American defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday that if the evaluation of damage is underway, “all of our precision ammunition struck where we wanted them to strike and had the desired effect”.

When asked if Iran still retained a nuclear capacity, Caine said that “the BDA was still pending, and it would be too early for me to comment what can be there”.

The assessment of combat damage, or BDA, is a military term which refers to the process of evaluating the effects of military operations on a target.

It generally implies a physical or functional verification of the extent of the damage, beyond the visual signs, and if the target remains operable

These assessments are generally carried out by intelligence analysts and recognition teams, using data from drones, satellites, radar or ground reports. It helps commanders to decide whether the mission has achieved its objectives and if monitoring strikes are necessary.

The UN Nuclear Nuclear Supervisor, Rafael Grossi, also brought a cautious tone, saying that it was not yet possible to assess the damage caused to the Fordo nuclear installation.

Add to uncertainty, Reuters reportedCiting a senior Iranian source, which most of the highly enriched uranium in Fordo had been transferred to an unhappy place before the American strikes on the enrichment site.

The strikes started early Saturday, when six stealth bombs by Air Force B-2 lost six GBU-57 Massive Ordnce Petrator (MOP)-a 30,000 pound bomb known as “Bunker Buster”, on the nuclear installation of Fordo d’Iran, which is built in the side of a mountain.

A seventh American B-2 bomber published two GBU-57 bombs on Natanz’s nuclear installation, while a US Navy submarine also launched a volley of 30 Tomahawk missiles, targeting Natanz and a third site, Isfahan.

The mission, the code called Operation Midnight Hammer, involved more than 125 aircraft in total.

– Erin Doherty contributed to this report