US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities

WASHINGTON,  United States 

United States President, Donald Trump, says American warplanes have bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing war between Iran and Israel.

"Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal," the president said in a brief televised address to the American people.

"But if peace doesn't come quickly we will go to those other targets with precision, speed and skill."

One of the targets was Fordo, a uranium enrichment plant hidden in a remote mountainside that is vital to Iran's nuclear ambitions. We do not yet know the full scale of the damage at the facility.

Israeli officials say they were in "full co-ordination" with the US in planning these strikes.

The US contacted Iran through diplomatic channels on Saturday to say the air strikes were all it intended to do and that "regime change efforts" were "not planned", according to US officials speaking to the CBS News.

Iran could respond by targeting US military assets in the region. Its officials had earlier warned that any US attack risked a regional war and they would retaliate.

The US says it hit three nuclear sites - at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

Fordo is hidden away in a mountainside south of Tehran, and is believed to be deeper underground than the Channel Tunnel connecting the UK and France.

Fordo's depth below the Earth's surface has made it difficult to reach with Israel's weaponry. Only the US was considered to have a "bunker buster" bomb strong and large enough to destroy Fordo.

That American bomb is called the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). It weighs 13,000kg (30,000lb), and is able to penetrate about 18m of concrete or 61m of earth before exploding, according to experts.

Fordo tunnels are thought to be 80m to 90m below the surface, so the MOP is not guaranteed to be successful, but it is the only bomb that could come close.

US officials have confirmed to CBS that MOPs were used in the strikes, with two for each target struck.