US strikes destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites, says new report

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Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility was mostly destroyed, and resuming enrichment there could take two years.

PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON – A new US assessment has found that US strikes in June mostly destroyed one of three targeted Iranian nuclear sites, but the other two were not as badly damaged, NBC News reported on July 17, citing current and former US officials.

The report said US officials believe the attack on Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility was successful in setting back enrichment capabilities there by as much as two years, citing two current officials.

The two other facilities that the US struck were not as badly damaged and may have been degraded only to a point where nuclear enrichment could resume in the next several months if Iran wants it to, the report added.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told NBC News in a statement: “As the President has said and experts have verified: Operation Midnight Hammer

totally obliterated

The chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told NBC that US President Donald Trump “was clear and the American people understand: Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz were completely and totally obliterated. There is no doubt about that”.

The US

launched strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities

A preliminary assessment in June from the Defence Intelligence Agency suggested that the strikes may have set