New satellite imagery reveals damage at three nuclear facilities in Iran after US military bombed the sites early Sunday morning. The strikes came amid an Israeli campaign to degrade Iran's nuclear program.
00:00Satellite images show the scale of surface level damage after a US strike on Iran's nuclear facilities on June 22nd.
00:07Here we can see the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, an underground complex deep in a mountainside south of Tehran.
00:13A closer look at this image reveals several holes or craters in a ridge.
00:17You can also see what appears to be dirt covering tunnel entrances, though it's unclear whether this was a result of the bombing.
00:23Compare it to Maxar's image of the site two days earlier, when the craters didn't exist.
00:28Given that most of Fordow is buried deep, the full extent of the damage at the site is unclear.
00:33Without fully consulting Congress, President Donald Trump authorized the strikes at Fordow, as well as at Natanz and Esfahan, to take place on Sunday.
00:41Additional satellite imagery reveals the aftermath at those locations as well.
00:45If you look closely, you can see a large hole or crater over the underground portion of Natanz.
00:50Other images from Esfahan show destroyed buildings and significant damage to infrastructure.
00:55The Joint Chiefs of Staff say the US used around 75 precision-guided weapons across the three sites, including dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles and 14 large bunker-buster bombs, specifically GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrators.
01:10This is the first time the US has directly participated in the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.
01:15It came just days after Trump opened a two-week window for Iran to pursue a diplomatic resolution to concerns about its nuclear program.
01:23Iran says its nuclear activities are peaceful.
01:25Israel claims it's on the cusp of obtaining a usable nuclear weapon.
01:29Trump said the US completely and totally obliterated Fordow.
01:33But independent experts who've analyzed the satellite imagery say that that may not be the case,
01:38and that Iran could have moved their enriched uranium out of the site ahead of the attacks.
01:42The top US general, Dan Cain, said initial assessments indicate all three sites suffered severe damage,
01:48but assessing the final battle damage will take time.
01:51To read all of our coverage on this and more, head to businessinsider.com.
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