(Refiles to add Iranian foreign minister’s surname in paragraph 6)
By Maayan Lubell, Phil Stewart and Steve Holland
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said he had “obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites in strikes overnight, in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to reserve all options to defend itself.
In Israel, which triggered the crisis by attacking Iran’s nuclear and military sites on June 13, retaliatory Iranian missile fire appeared heavier overnight than in previous days and the health ministry said 86 people were injured.
Iranians voiced fear at the prospect of the nine-day conflict expanding. “Our future is dark. We have nowhere to go – it’s like living in a horror movie,” said Bita, 36, a teacher from the central city of Kashan before the phone line was cut.
Trump, in a televised address to the U.S. people, flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, called the strikes a “spectacular military success” that had taken out Iran’s three principal nuclear sites: Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow.
He warned Tehran it would face more devastating attacks if it did not agree to peace.
“The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, calling the U.S. strikes a “grave violation” of the U.N. charter, international law and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people,” Araqchi posted on X.
After days of deliberation and long before his self-imposed two-week deadline, Trump’s decision to join Israel’s military campaign against its major rival Iran is the biggest foreign policy gamble of his two presidencies and one fraught with risks and unknowns.
The major escalation of armed conflict in the Middle East risks opening a new era of instability in the Middle East.
Trump said Iran’s future held “either peace or tragedy,” and there were many other targets that could be hit by the U.S. military. “If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.”
The U.S. contacted Iran diplomatically on Saturday to say the strikes are all the U.S. plans and it does not aim for regime change, CBS News reported.
Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity show that six “bunker-buster” bombs were dropped on the deep-underground Fordow facility, while 30 Tomahawk missiles were fired against other nuclear sites. U.S. B-2 bombers were involved in the strikes, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Reuters had reported the movement of the B-2 bombers, which can be equipped to carry the massive bombs that experts say would be needed to strike Fordow, which is buried beneath a mountain south of Tehran. Given its fortification, it will likely be days, if not longer, before the impact of the strikes is known.
An Iranian official, cited by Tasnim news agency, confirmed part of the Fordow site was attacked by “enemy airstrikes.” However, Mohammad Manan Raisi, a lawmaker for Qom, near Fordow, told the semi-official Fars news agency the facility had not been seriously damaged.
A reporter from Iranian state media IRNA reporter said he had arrived near the Fordow site at 3 a.m. (2330 GMT on Saturday) and saw smoke that “seems to be related to air defences”. He quoted a nearby witness as reporting “six explosions were heard, but they said it wasn’t very loud.”
TARGETS
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said it would not allow development of its “national industry” to be stopped, and an Iranian state television commentator said every U.S. citizen or military member in the region would be legitimate targets.
Israel’s Health Ministry said 86 people were injured on Sunday morning, most of them lightly.
Air raid sirens sounded across most of the country, sending millions of people to safe rooms and bomb shelters as explosions rang out and missile interceptions were seen above Jerusalem and in other parts of the country.
Aviad Chernovsky, 40, emerged from a bomb shelter to find his house had been destroyed in a direct hit. “It’s not easy to live now in Israel (right now), but we are very strong. We know that we will win,” he said.
It was not immediately clear how many missiles had pierced Israel’s air defence systems, but police confirmed at least three impact sites in residential areas in central and northern Israel.
Video from Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv and the port city of Haifa further north showed rescue teams combing through debris, apartments reduced to rubble, mangled cars along a street filled with debris and medics evacuating injured people from a row of blown out houses.
Most airlines continued to avoid large parts of the Middle East after the U.S. strikes, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, with traffic already skirting airspace in the region due to recent missile exchanges.
DIPLOMATIC FAILURE
The U.N. nuclear watchdog said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the U.S. strikes.
Hassan Abedini, deputy political head of Iran’s state broadcaster, said Iran had evacuated the three sites some time ago.
“The enriched uranium reserves had been transferred from the nuclear centres and there are no materials left there that, if targeted, would cause radiation and be harmful to our compatriots,” he told the channel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on his “bold decision”, saying, “History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime, the world’s most dangerous weapons.”
Israel and Iran have been engaged in more than a week of aerial combat that has resulted in deaths and injuries in both countries. Israel launched its attacks on June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.
Diplomatic efforts by Western nations to stop the hostilities have so far failed. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the U.S. strikes a “dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security.”
In the U.S., Democratic lawmakers and some from Trump’s Republican Party have argued that he must receive permission from Congress before committing the U.S. military to any combat against Iran.
At least 430 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since Israel began its attacks, Iranian state-run Nour News said, citing the health ministry.
In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed and 1,272 people injured, according to local authorities.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by William Mallard; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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