The Trump administration said that its attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities was not about toppling the country’s government.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Sunday news briefing.
Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that the goal of “Operation Midnight Hammer” had destroyed the nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
“Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine said.
Meanwhile, a Pentagon-provided map of the flight path taken by B-2 stealth bombers indicates that their approach to Iran took them over the Mediterranean and then over Israel, Jordan and Iraq.
It is not immediately clear when those three countries were made aware of the flights. Israel has said the U.S. strikes were carried out in coordination with its military. The U.S. said the strikes did not involve Israeli jets.
The Pentagon released the map to journalists as it gave details of the mission, which it described as causing “extremely severe damage and destruction” to three Iranian nuclear sites.
