U.S. strikes Iranian nuclear sites Fordow, Natanz, Isfahan overnight

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

A Pentagon-issued graphic released in connection with a pentagon briefing provides details about Operation Midnight Hammer.
Image: United States Department of Defense.

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The United States launched airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, overnight between June 21 and 22, aimed at disabling Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

The strike, designated Operation Midnight Hammer by the U.S. military, was ordered by President Donald Trump and announced late Saturday night from Washington. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the first bombs were dropped on the Fordow site at approximately 6:40 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (2240 UTC) on Saturday, as part of a coordinated strike involving seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers.

Tomahawk missiles were fired from a U.S. Navy submarine, and B-2 stealth bombers, after an 18-hour flight from the United States with support from fighter escorts and refueling aircraft, dropped a total of fourteen 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bombs. According to Air Force General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this marked the first operational use of the GBU-57. During a press briefing, General Caine said he agreed with President Donald Trump’s assessment that “no other military in the world could have done this,” and praised the mission as a demonstration of the United States’ “unmatched reach, coordination and capability.”

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the operation included deception tactics involving decoy aircraft flying west over the Pacific Ocean to conceal the true direction and intent of the main strike package.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated the mission was not intended as a regime change effort, but rather a precision operation “to neutralize the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear program and [in support of] the collective self-defense of our troops and our ally, Israel.”

Hours after the strikes, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the U.S. action, saying the time for diplomacy had ended and that Iran had the right to defend itself. “The warmongering, a lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far reaching implications of its act of aggression,” Araghchi said during a press conference in Turkey, according to the Associated Press.