Report: US Strikes Didn't 'Obliterate' Iran Nuclear Program

The US strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran were not as successful as President Trump claimed they were, according to details of an early intelligence assessment leaked to outlets including CNN. Trump said the Saturday strikes "completely obliterated" nuclear facilities but according to CNN's sources, core components of Iran's nuclear program, including its stockpile of enriched uranium, survived and the US strikes only set the program back "maybe a few months, tops."

• Sources tell the Washington Post that the Defense Intelligence Agency report, based on the Pentagon's early assessment of damage, also concluded that many of the centrifuges Iran uses to enrich uranium survived the strikes on the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan sites. Sources said the strikes collapsed the entrances to two of the sites but did not destroy underground buildings.

• Experts who looked at satellite photos earlier called the strikes "incomplete." Reuters reports that the Trump administration told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that the strikes had "degraded" the program.
• The assessment could change as more intelligence comes in, CNN notes. The White House said it rejected the report. "This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program."

• Analysts believe that Iran, suspecting the US could strike sites including Fordow with bunker-buster bombs, moved enriched uranium out of the facility before the Saturday strikes, the AP reports. Sources tell CNN that US officials believe Iran has secret nuclear facilities that weren't hit by US and Israeli strikes.
• Classified Iran briefings for the House and Senate were postponed on Tuesday. Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, tells the Post that many lawmakers believe the hearings were delayed because the administration is embarrassed by the early intelligence reports. "They don't delay briefings that have good news," he says.

(More US strikes Iran stories.)