Israel says Iran could still reach enriched uranium at nuclear site hit by US

WASHINGTON: Israel believes deeply buried stocks of enriched uranium at an Iranian nuclear facility hit by the US military are potentially retrievable, an Israeli official said.

And the agency that built the US "bunker buster" bombs dropped on two other nuclear sites said Thursday that it is still waiting for data to be able to determine if those munitions reached their targets.


Both developments widen the views on the damage from last month's strikes, when the US inserted itself in Israel's war in a bid to eliminate the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. Iran says its programme is peaceful.

President Trump is adamant the US strikes "obliterated" the three Iranian nuclear facilities it targeted. International assessments and an initial US intelligence assessment have been more measured, with the US defence intelligence agency saying in a preliminary report the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not destroy them.

Much of Iran's enriched uranium is believed deeply buried at the third site, Isfahan, the Israeli official said. The US used B-2 stealth bombers to target Fordo and Natanz sites. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian Monday said the US airstrikes so badly damaged the facilities that authorities still have not been able to access them for survey.

'Iran strikes hit dome used for US communications in Qatar'

An Iranian attack on June 23 on an air base in Qatar key to US military likely hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by Americans for secure communications, satellite images show. The attack otherwise did little damage - likely because US evacuated its aircraft from the base home to forward headquarters of US military's Central Command ahead of the attack.