NEW YORK, June 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday that the U.S. military is still assessing the impact of its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, which "took months and weeks of positioning" to execute.
"Last night, on President (Donald) Trump's order, Central Command conducted precision strikes in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran -- Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan -- in order to destroy or severely damage Iran's nuclear program," Hegseth said during a Pentagon press conference.
The operation, named "Operation Midnight," utilized 14 bunker-buster bombs, over two dozen Tomahawk missiles, and more than 125 military aircraft, said Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The battle damage assessment remains ongoing, but an initial assessment indicates that all precision munitions struck where the U.S. military intended them to strike and had the desired effect, Hegseth said.
On the Iranian side, President Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned the strikes, saying that the aggression showed the United States is the "main factor" behind Israel's hostile actions against Iran.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the time for diplomacy had passed and that his country had the right to defend itself, adding that the United States had "crossed a very big red line." ■
