US military intelligence suggests Iran’s nuclear program remains intact, contradicting Donald Trump’s claims of ‘obliteration’

An initial report by US military intelligence after the strikes on Iran has delivered news Donald Trump and his White House do not want to hear.

An initial report from US military intelligence has concluded Donald Trump’s air strikes on Iran left most of its nuclear infrastructure intact, and its capacity to develop nuclear weapons was “likely only set back by months”.

That wildly contradicts the claims, from both Mr Trump himself and senior members of his administration, that the Iranian nuclear program was “obliterated”, and the regime’s ambitions to obtain a bomb crippled.

Operation Midnight Hammer, launched at the President’s command on Saturday, US time, targeted three nuclear facilities in Iran using GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs. The point of the mission was to destroy crucial infrastructure, most of it hidden deep underground, at the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz enrichment sites.

The Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in central Iran. Picture: Planet Labs PBC/AFP

The Isfahan facility. Picture: Planet Labs PBC/AFP

And the Fordow site. Picture: Maxar Technologies/AFP

According to the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), America’s military intelligence arm housed within the Pentagon, it may have failed in that task.

The agency’s initial findings, which could of course change as more intelligence is gathered, suggest America’s air strikes collapsed the entrances to two of the Iranian facilities, but didn’t penetrate far enough to destroy the buildings inside.

The country’s stockpile of enriched uranium remains largely untouched, having been moved to other locations before the US attacked, and most of its centrifuges are still operational.

The above is being reported by multiple US media outlets, including but not limited to The New York Times and CNN, both of which spoke to multiple sources familiar with the DIA’s initial report.

“The assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” one of these sources, none of whom were named, told CNN.

President Donald Trump at the White House, just before heading off to the NATO Summit. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

The White House has hit back hard, calling the DIA’s assessment “flat-out wrong” and condemning the unnamed sources for leaking it. But it has not denied the existence of the report, nor the characterisation of its contents.

“This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program.

“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was similarly scathing.

“Based on everything we have seen, and I’ve seen it all, our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons,” Mr Hegseth said.

“Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran.

“So anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Picture: Alex Wroblewski/AFP

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images via AFP

Members of Congress were scheduled to receive a briefing on the mission today, where some of them, having seen the DIA’s report, intended to ask about it.

That briefing has now been postponed until Thursday, US time.

Meanwhile, Iran claims it is ready to resume its nuclear development.

“Iran’s nuclear program will resume without interruption and we are ready to restart enrichment,” the country’s Atomic Energy Agency said today.

“Our program will not stop.”

Ms Leavitt and Mr Hegseth have every reason to doubt the DIA here; both characterised America’s attack on Iran as a total success immediately after the operation.

“Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,” said Mr Hegseth.

Ms Leavitt said the strikes “took away Iran’s ability to create a nuclear bomb”.

“They no longer have the capability to build this nuclear weapon,” she said.

Mr Trump himself told the world that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated”.

No ambiguity there.

More information will be gathered and, of course, the DIA is hardly America’s only intelligence agency. Perhaps the other agencies’ findings will be more encouraging.

Originally published as US military intelligence suggests Iran’s nuclear program remains intact, contradicting Donald Trump’s claims of ‘obliteration’