fordo is the nuclear site which is deep underground. at the moment we don't have any response from iran. we know that president trump has said that he will address the us public in less than two hours from now, in about 90 minutes from now he is going to deliver an address to the nation. mr trump saying that a full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site of fordo. mr trump saying that all plans are now safely on the way home. he said congratulations to our great american warriors. we know president trump is going to be addressing the nation at 10pm. we are getting a bit more reaction here. senator lindsey graham, republican, saying this was the right call. the regime deserves it. well done, president trump. to my fellow citizens, he says, we have the best air force in the world. so we are starting to get more reaction to the story, but of course, quite significantly, nothing yet from iran. i am joined by a representative from the centre for defence of democracies, and iran expert who is in the studio with me. we were talking a

one is fordo, the other acro two an isfahan. in a separate post, president trump said fordo was now gone. fordo is understood to be a nuclear site quite deep underground. the president saying all us planes that were involved in this action are now outside of iranian airspace. he said full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site. what you can see on the screen are american b-2 bombers. we understand they were the planes involved in this action. it was a couple of hours ago we were reporting that those b-2 bombers from the us had been moved to an american military base in guam. president trump is due to address the american people in just under 90 minutes from now. he will deliver an address to update the american people and indeed the world on this military action. it is interesting, the timing of this, because it was only a couple of days ago that the president said he would have a think about whether or not to join israel's action on iran. and maybe give it another fortnight or so. so in some ways, some experts we have

the main site hoedt was fordo. it is in a mountainous region. it is thought to consist of two tunnels, facilities to enrich uranium, a network of smaller tunnels. reaching this underground installation, it is about 60 metres below ground, requires more powerful bunker busting bombs, as they are known, which only the us have. their official name is the gbu-57, massive ordnance penetrator, and the only planes which can carry such bombs either b2 stealth bombers, senior us officials have confirmed this was the form is used, to deployed for each targets. bbc journalist cannot report from inside iran because of restrictions by the iranian government backed iranian officials have denied that the country suffered a major blow, they said nuclear material had been removed from the targeted facilities at some time ago. the un nuclear watchdog says that no increase in radiation levels. let us talk more about the logistics of what has just happened here. i'm joined by a former security officer and assault helicopter pilot with the british military. when pre

but the main site hit was fordo. the uranium enrichment site is situated about 60 miles - or 100 kilometres - south of the capital tehran, in a mountainous region. it's thought to consist of two main tunnels that house centrifuges used to enrich urani as well as a network of smaller tunnels. reaching this underground installation, which is located around 60 metres below ground, required more powerful "bunker-busting" bombs, which only the us has. it's official name is the gbu57 masive ordnance penetrator, and the only planes that can carry such bombs are b-2 stealth bombers. senior department of defence officials confirmed the bomb was used in the attacks, with two deployed for each of the nuclear targets. bbc journalists are currently unable to report from inside iran due to restrictions by the iranian government. but iranian officials have denied that the country suffered a major blow. they said nuclear material had been removed from the targeted facilities some time ago. the un nuclear watchdog says there has been

us president donald trump saying the us bombed fordo and other nuclear sites in iran. this is bbc news. do stay with us as we will bring you that live. this is bbc news, coming to you live from washington. we come on air with that news that the us has confirmed that it has attacked iran. president trump posting on the truth social platform that the us had completed what he said was a very successful attack on three nuclear sites in iran. he said that a full payload of bombs had been dropped on fordo, which is around's main enrichment site. iranian state media confirming that those strikes took place, saying that the fordo strike was, i quote, attacked by enemy strikes. about a minute or so from now the president is set to make a televised address from the white house. of course, these kinds of addresses are reserved for the most important of occasions, and this, in many ways, the most important address the president is making since he returned to the white house. now, it was reported before president trump posted on truth social that the us was sending b-2 stealth bomb

this is a state tv reporter who went to fordo. i cannot see much damage, he says, for now it is america's word against iran's. for the time being the government has condemned us attacks but revealed nothing about their next moves. so that there is no doubt, this attack was a violation of the united nations charter. and as well as one aggression on aggression to the iranians national sovereignty and the iranian integrity. weakened and humiliated. the iranian regime will struggle to retain its credibility and maintain its grip on power. joining me now is matthew savill - director of military sciences at rusi. the defence think tank in london. according to the defence secretary, it'll take some time for a comprehensive assessment of the damage inflicted on the bases in iran on this military action. what is your sense of how the american bombing campaign went and when you look at the photographs of fordo and there's other nuclear sites, how much nuclear damage has been inflicted there? good evening. the first thing is we've had a stun

donald trump saying that fordo is gone. the question is, of course, whether that is a confirmation that they used those bombs. i would have thought that basically does mean that, and we saw the b-2 planes yesterday going to guam, the overseas territory in the western pacific, very far from iran, but a place from where they could launch those b-2 planes. also, i have to say, avoiding the kind of messy situation that there is in another launch site, diego garcia, which is an indian ocean site basically belongs still or is run by the united kingdom, so they could have been a difficult situation in getting approval from the uk to use that site. so it appears that the b-2 bombers will have taken off from guam. we don't have complete confirmation from that. and they will have dropped the bunker busters, if indeed they did, on three iranian sites, natanz, which is one of the main enrichment sites, isfahan, and fordo. the question now is what the reaction will be from iran. this is a decisive, seismic moment in the war, in the rela

the crisis management bureau where fordo is located stated that the perimeter of the fordo nuclear site had been targeted. iranian state media said only two channels for entry and exit were destroyed and fordo. preliminary open source imagery shows damages at the various points in the facility. i urge iran to allow iaea inspectors access to the sites to conduct damage assessments as soon as safety conditions allow. i also note this council will shortly hear from the iaea director-general rossi. the latest development must be viewed with the utmost seriousness. it marks a dangerous escalation in a conflict that has already devastated many lives in both countries, in a region on the edge. it is a direct threat to international peace and security. madam president, undersecretary general de carlo told this council only two days ago that we were teetering on the edge of a full-blown conflict. my fear, we are now in that dangerous moment. meanwhile, the hostilities between israel and iran continue and are now in their tenth day. hours after the us strike, the islamic revolutionary guard corps

at fordo. well, state media in iran is reporting significant damage but officials are saying there are no signs of contamination or radiation. let's show you these images

at fordo. well, state media in iran is reporting significant damage but officials are saying there are no signs of contamination or radiation. let's show you these images that have come to us from the white house. they show you the situation room, which is essentially the president's war room and there you can see him alongside his top team as the decision to go ahead with those strikes was clearly being made. we know that the national security team was meeting at the white house this evening. then shortly afterwards, we got a statement on truth social from president trump, where he announced that those three sites in iran had been hit. well, they come just days after president trump said that he was considering whether or not to support israel's attacks on iran stop in some ways, he said he would mull over the decision for a fortnight. and so, many people were not expecting this attack to happen on saturday night. well, let's replay you the statement that president trump delivered from the eas

he said a full payload of bombs was dropped on the fordo side. he said congratulations to our great american warriors. let's get more reaction from iran or people who are watching you run at least by joining a correspondent from the bbc persian service. and of course, the reason why you have to monitor events from outside everyone is you are unable to report from inside the country. tell us more about what you are seeing on iranian state tv. what are officials saying? first, in the first may be 20-30 minutes, there was confirmation that this happened, partly by news broadcast on television, on state tv, in subtitled form and then some commentators and hosts started talking about it. one promising retaliation and one saying this is a war donald trump started but this is a war we will end. but it is still too early to see it as the official or even if the mood of the official response. we have to wait until morning. a damage assessment has to be done. the other officials that came out in the last hour have been giving to information. one is that th

so the focus is on fordo and where is the 60%.lots of different messaging claims for iran to produce a nuclear weapon in terms of timelines from 3-5 weeks all the way to a year and given the iaea report, what is your assessment? iaea does not have all of the knowledge of what is needed to set up the real timeline. because this has a few aspects. first, how well iran is prepared. here are called to the statements of the former head of the organisation a few months ago when he said that iran has all of the capabilities to produce or manufacture a nuclear weapon. they know all of the other parts which are needed, the electronics, explosive, design and all and the only thing which is missing is to produce this high enriched uranium components of the weapon which is a little bit simpler. you take this and uranium hexafluoride and turn it into uranium metal and you alloy it and you mash up into the proper shape. that takes about one month if we take the iaea standards from this material so in one month if they have all of the other piec

israel has also struck the fordo nuclear site, as the head of the un nuclear watchdog calls for access to the areas bombed by the united states. sirens heard in israel as iran launched another barrage of missiles earlier this morning, with reports of at least 7 hits. hello, welcome to the programme. israel has launched an intense new wave of strikes against the iranian capital, as it targets what it described as agencies of government repression. damaged sites include evin prison, which holds political detainees, and a paramilitary organisation often deployed to clamp down on dissent. israeli foreign minister gideon sa'ar posted this cctv footage on x, showing prison entrance being hit. israel has also been struck. iran sent a barrage of missiles towards israel on monday morning - sirens in israel sounded for 30 minutes there were reports of "fallen projectiles". this comes as president trump has described his the british foreign secretary has just been speaking and he told the royal air force has evacuated british nationals from israel today, as president trump has described his attac

les 3 principaux sites, dont celui de fordo, sont totalement détruits selon washington.s cette guerre déclenchée par israël. - après une semaine à faire durer le suspense, les etats-unis ont frappé dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche 3 sites nucléaires iraniens, se joignant à l'offensive israélienne contre l'iran. a fordo, le principal site d'enrichissement nucléaire iranien, des bombardiers furtifs américains b-2 ont largué 6 bombes anti-bunker de type gbu-57, les seules à pouvoir détruire de telles infrastructures, situées à des dizaines de mètre sous terre. le site d'enrichissement d'uranium

color="#00ffff">- voici une image satellite du complexe souterrain de fordoimpacts des frappes lors de l'opération américaine. les sites de natanz et d'ispahan ont été touchés. deux douzaines de missiles tomahawk auraient été utilisées. - mesurer les dommages définitifs causés par la bataille prendra un certain temps, mais les premières évaluations indiquent que les 3 sites ont subi des dommages extrêmement graves. - ces images satellites montrent l'étendue des dégâts sur le site d'ispahan. voici ceux du site nucléaire près de natanz. le directeur général de l'aiea

has struck three nuclear sites in iran, the fordo site, the natanz and the isfahan site. mr.mp, posting on social media that a full payload of bombs was dropped on the site of fordo. he said there is not another military in the world that could have done this. now we understand that this was done in coordination with israel, who were aware of this happening. iranian state media has confirmed those strikes, saying that part of the fordo site was, i quote, attacked by enemies. and in just over 30 minutes, the president is going to make a televised address to the nation from the white house. well, joining me now is colonel brendan kearney, the former chief of staff for the u.s. marine corps forces. thank you very much for waiting patiently. it's good to talk to you here on bbc news. what do you make of what we've heard so far about this military operation? >> well, it's not a surprise. i mean, we've been anticipating this for the last couple of days. there's certainly been open source reporting in terms of aircraft movement, aircraft carrier movement into the region. and preside

but the main site hit was fordo. the uranium enrichment site is situated about 60 miles or 100km south of the capital tehran. it is located in a mountainous region. it's thought to consist of two main tunnels that house centrifuges used to enrich uranium, as well as a network of smaller tunnels. reaching this underground installation, which is around 60 metres below ground, required more powerful bunker-busting bombs, which only the us has. its official name is the gbu-57 massive ordnance penetrator and the only planes that could carry such bombs are b-2 stealth bombers. senior department of defense officials confirmed the bomb was used in the attacks with two being deployed for each of the nuclear targets. live to our north america correspondent nomia iqbal, who is in washington. nomia, donald trump gave the iranians a two-week window of opportunity and two days in, he went in with the bombs perhaps a strategy potentially to catch the iranians off-guard? potentially. we know that president trump is unpredictable and

as the strike package approached fordo and natanz, the u.s. protection package employed high speed suppression weapons to ensure safe passage of the strike package, with fighter assets employing pretemptive suppressing fires against any potential iranian surface to air threats. we're currently unaware of any shots fired at the u.s. strike package on the way in. at approximately 6:40 p.m. eastern standard time, 2:10 a.m. iran time, the lead b-2 dropped two gbu-57 massive ordinance penetrator weapons on the first of several aim points at fordo. as the president stated last night, the remaining bombers then hit their targets as well, with a total of 14 mops dropped against two nuclear target areas. all three iranian nuclear infrastructure targets were struck between 6:40 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. eastern time. again, that's about 2:10 in the morning local time in iran. with the tomahawk missiles being the last to strike at isfahan to ensure we retain the element of surprise throughout the operation. following weapons release, the midnight hammer strike

>> not if they really want to destroy that fordo facility. it's buried deep underground. and i think the concern has been, if the iranians decide that, you know, they have no recourse for their own security except to try to dash out and weaponize and acquire enough material for a nuclear weapon, that they might want to go deep underground, not just at fordo, but maybe even at other places. and the reality is, absent this kind of weapon, the only way to otherwise for israel to get at this facility is on the ground to go in themselves. they can't they can't blow it up with munitions. that's why the iranians buried it deep underground. so their option is for the united states to do this, or for the united states to somehow provide them with these weapons to do it, which basically puts us in a in a different kind of way. and again, just to voice some caution here, chris, we had total dominance over the skies of iraq. we had total total dominance over the skies of afghanistan. we had total dominance over the skies of libya. and those consequences negatively didn't manifest for

managed to reach the fordo facility itself because it's unable to, but they've taken out perhaps uh, one of the more vulnerable points around it, which is the entrances, of course, it is still early hours, we'll wait for the iranian response, let's bring in caleb mopen, caleb, bring the american perspective, take it away, what do you make of it all? devastating, donald trump won the elections, people voted for donald trump in the united states and numbers, because he said many times from the campaign stage that i started no new wars in my first term as president and i will not us into new wars, and now it seems... he's gotten us into a new war, and not just any war, but a foreign countries war, israel's war. donald trump has joined a string of american presidents who promised peace and brought us into wars, just like obama, just like bush, uh, just like woodrow wilson, uh, the list goes on, um, however, this also seems to reveal how frightened donald trump seems to be, i mean, at this point when i'm hearing the the details about the strike that we just heard from my colleague there,

israel is not going to be able to destroy the fordo facility. know, natanz, they can damage perhaps, but not wipe it out entirely. and therefore you have a regime which still has the desire to if what israel and the west is saying to to get a nuclear weapon, you still have that in place. >> yeah, that's exactly right. i mean, you know, the reality is i heard you cnn quoted somebody saying that the program has been set back significantly. i don't think that's true. you know, the enriched uranium is unreachable under fordo right now. and some tunnels associated with the natanz facility. no reason to believe that that uranium has actually been has been, you know, in any way destroyed. now, the israelis, of course, can close tunnel entrances and stuff, but, you know, you can you can fix that quickly. the the iranian nuclear scientists who have been killed. you know, the reality is that you can replace that. know how you know, pakistan and india, who pakistan in particular, are not known for their nuclear scientists. you know, they can right now, ira

so if you want to destroy fordo and at the end of this, i think fordo has to be taken care of either diplomatically or through a military strike. it really is the u.s. military option. >> i just have one last question. iran says it will retaliate, retaliate against the united states if it enters this war. what capabilities do they have? what kind of damage would that mean to the u.s.? >> though the iranians for many years i've negotiated with them. i've been in almost proxy conflicts with them. i know how they think. they have proxy militia networks. they can try to target american personnel. they have missiles and they have other capabilities. they are also significantly, significantly weakened because of the disastrous decisions iran has made since october 7th and hamas's attack in israel. iran chose after that attack to basically join in the campaign against israel, and it has lost its main proxy group in hezbollah, just north of israel. its missile capabilities are diminished so they can still get some off. it has no air defense. and look, if we're going to do this, owning the cl

us president donald trump said it targeted fordo, natans and the isfahan nuclear facilities early on sunday morning. he claimed the strikes were success, but iranian officials reported. that there was no significant damage to fordo. local experts and residents also say no radiation leaks or contamination have been detected in the area. the irgc has released a statement saying that the american regime has not learned the lessons of past west asian wars and will suffer the consequences of its actions. it warned that the number dispersion and the size of the us military bases in the region are not a strength, but have doubled their vulnerability. well the iranian president has condemned the overnight us air strikes on the country's nuclear facilities, saying they revealed that washington is the main culprate behind israel's ongoing acts of aggression against iran. said the us initially attempted to mask its involvement, but iran's robust retaliatory measures and israel's vulnerability forced washington to intervene directly. he argued that the israeli regime lacks both the capacity and

the key target was a place called fordo. the b-2 bombers flew a route that took them high above the site where iran enriches uranium, which could be used in nuclear bombs. it's buried in tunnels and deep under a mountain. now, this is what fordo looked like before the attack. and this image, confirmed by bbc verify, is just hours after the strike, and you can see over here these holes - that looks like where the bombs impacted before burrowing down and then exploding. and the white you can see around it is probably concrete dust thrown up by the resulting explosion. now, here is the isfahan site before the bombing - and this is what it looks like now. so far, the international atomic energy agency says it's seen no radiation leaking from the sides. and one possibility is that that's because the nuclear material might not have been there. these images were taken just a couple of days before the attack at fordo, and they show a large number of trucks. it's possible they could have moved some of the uranium, as iran has claimed

so let me just start with fordo, because fordo is 200km away from tehran.long time. trump also posted evacuate tehran when he was saying he was leaving the g-7. what do you make of all of these pieces? one can israel do? can they get rid of fordo without the us military? can they do it remotely without the us military? i think the answer is no. but you tell me if you agree with that. and two, what did you make of the tehran evacuation call? because that's a city of 9 million people. >> well, israel does not have a bomber force. it has an effective fighter force aircraft that can conduct aerial. >> targeting. >> but it can't actually carry that 30,000 mop, that massive ordnance penetrator, which is the only weapon that can go deep into the mountain. and what iran. did and the obama administration, when it came in in 2009, saw the intelligence that israel had developed that showed that iran had buried deep under a mountain, a cascade hall to spin centrifuges, to develop weapons grade uranium. that's bomb fuel for a nuclear weapon deep in the mountain. if you'

i mean, there's there's estimates of of how deep the fordo facility goes. and i've seen a variety of them, but it's extensive. i mean, it is very deep in this mountain. >> without a doubt. and you not only have the mountainous structure, you know, the natural fortification that is provided in this facility, but there's also been some analysis that there is likely some reinforced concrete as well. so you have the mountain itself, but then you may also have reinforced fortifications for this facility itself. and that's why most experts have said it would likely take multiple runs of these gbu 57, known as these 30,000 pound bunker busting bombs to be dropped over this facility. i do think that it is interesting that we are also talking about u.s. strikes. according to the president, on these two other nuclear facilities as well. and that, you know, all the attention has been focused on this fordo facility, which is where the united states was needed in order to destroy that facility. but the fact that president trump authorized strikes on these two other nucl

fordo a été touché à des endroits précis, mais fordo est très étendu.uterrains de fordo dans les jours précédents. il ne s'agit pas des 400 kilos d'uranium déjà enrichis, ils ne sont pas encore enrichis à 90 %... on ne peut pas les utiliser comme ça pour faire une bombe nucléaire. eux tiennent dans un semi-remorque. il ne s'agit pas de ça. est-ce qu'il s'agit de centrifugeuses? on ne sait pas. du côté de l'aiea, on estime que l'iran est un pays sophistiqué en matière de technologies nucléaires, que les capacités sont là, et qu'on ne peut pas dire que tout a disparu et qu'il n'y a plus rien. je cite rafael grossi. - aude lechrist: merci. on vous retrouvera à 20h30 pour continuer à parler de tout cela. on a retrouvé siavosh ghazi. on doute qu'israël respecte le cessez-le-feu. on connaît le bilan du bombardement de cette prison d'evin, à téhéran. 71 morts. est-ce que nous savons qui sont les victimes? on parle de détenus, or, 2 otages français se trouvaient dans cette prison. - siavosh ghazi: oui. lorsqu'il y a eu les frappes israéliennes la nuit dernière

the site at fordo was the key target and it is too early to be sure what damage has been done. these new satellite images of the fordo site show the aftermath of both fresh israeli attacks, as well as the holes where the us bunker buster bombs burrowed in at the weekend. there is no sign though of the collapse of the whole mountain and they don't reveal what happened inside and whether the explosions reached the enrichment hall buried deep underground. that means other forms of intelligence will be needed, seismic detectors, specialist laser sensors, maybe human spies and interceptor communications will stop these human spies and interceptor communications. these new images also from yesterday showed damage at isfhan, including to tunnel entrances. but crucially, even if the sites were obliterated and put out of action, that is not the same thing as destroying the overall nuclear programme. the big point according to the leaks we have had from us intelligence is that the united states thinks iran has retained highly enriched uranium. that is a much bigger deal than whether the

a lead b-2 bombers dropping the first two 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs on fordo. that site buried deep under a mountain. those massive bombs hits facilities and both fordo and natanz, marking the first time they've ever been used on the battlefield. there was no response from iran in real time. >> iran's fighters did not fly, and it appears that iran's surface to air missile systems did not see us. >> reporter: right after those bunker-busting bombs struck, then the tomahawk missiles hitting a third target. the thei ii i theistfahan nuclear site. in total, 125 aircraft and 75 precision-guided members were used. >> david: martha, what do we know, and i know it's early, about the damage caused by those 30-pound bound bombs you speak of. did the bombs accomplish what the u.s. was hoping they would do? >> reporter: david, iran's nuclear program has no doubt been damaged extensively, with those experts saying each of the targets hit twice, the penetrating bombs burrowing through the cement and steel around fordo. david? >> david: martha raddatz back with us tonight, as

creators visible at the fordo site. iran's main location for enriching uranium at 60% indicate rating the use by the united states of america of ground penetrating munitions. this is consistent with statements from the united states at, this time at this time. no one, including iaea, is in a position to assess the underground damage at fordo. at the esfahan nuclear site. addition of buildings where hit overnight with the u.s. confirming their use of cruise missiles. affected buildings include some related to uranium conversion process. also at this site entrance is two tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit. a at the natanz enrichment site. the fuel enrichment plant has been hit again, with the us confirming that it used ground imitating munitions. iran has informed the iaea. there has been increase in of site radiation levels at the three sites a situation at all others sites in iran remains as i described them to. three days ago. we continue to monitor the situation, encourage the ir

fordo, natanz and isfahan. everybody heard those names for years as they build this horribly destructive enterprise. our objective was the destruction of iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world number one state sponsor of terror. tonight i can report to the world that these drugs were a spectacular military success. -- these strikes. the facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. iran, the bully of the middle east, must now make peace. if not, attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. for 40 years iran has been saying death to america, death to israel. they have been killing people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. that was a speciality. we lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the middle east and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate, in particular so many were killed by their general qasem soleimani. i decided a long time ago that i would not let this happen. it

and here's the aftermath at fordo, iran's underground nuclear enrichment facility. high-resolution images show six fresh craters, likely the entry points for us munitions. there's no huge blast effect here because the bombs used aren't designed to detonate on entry, but deep underground in the facility. grey dust that can be seen scattered across the mountainside suggests concrete debris had been blown out by the explosions. images from the isfahan nuclear site also show some of the damage. and the facility in natanz, too, appears to show a crater. both nuclear sites have been previously hit by israeli strikes. how much damage the strikes have caused remains to be seen. merlyn thomas, bbc news. here, the prime minister has chaired a meeting of the government's emergency cobra committee. sir keir starmer said "all necessary measures" are being taken to protect british interests in the region - and again called for de-escalation. we have long had concerns about the iranian nuclear programme and been very clear that iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. the us has now tak