More nuanced assessment suggests US and Israeli strikes on Iran significantly set back the regime’s nuclear program

Published July 18, 2025 7:15am ET



B-2 TARGET: ‘BADLY DAMAGED, POTENTIALLY DESTROYED’: A new U.S. intelligence assessment is lending more support for President Donald Trump’s boasts that Operation Midnight Hammer, in which American B-2 stealth bombers delivered 12 massive bunker-busting bombs with devastating accuracy, left Iran’s key nuclear facility in shambles.

The new reporting, first by NBC News and then by the New York Times, cited multiple U.S. officials as describing Fordow, Iran’s most advanced nuclear site, as “mostly destroyed,” setting back operations there at least two years, if Iran decided to try to rebuild.

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