US insists strikes on Iran were a success

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has defended the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and said Donald Trump had "decimated and obliterated" the country's nuclear programme despite initial intelligence assessments that Washington had failed to destroy key enrichment facilities.

- Andrew Roth

But he and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, largely based that assessment on AI modelling, showing test videos of the "bunker buster" bombs used in the strikes. They referred questions on a battle damage assessment of Fordow to the intelligence community.

Speaking from the Pentagon briefing room, Hegseth cast doubt on an initial assessment from the US Defense Intelligence Agency, noting it was "preliminary" and "leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn't successful".

Hegseth also said he was not aware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that Iran's 400kg stock of 60% enriched uranium could no longer be accounted for.

"I'm not aware of any intelligence ... that says things were not where they were supposed to be, moved or otherwise," Hegseth said.

The defence secretary also targeted the press for using leaked information in reports, as the Trump administration has indicated that it could take action against individual reporters for publishing the results of the initial assessment. "Time and time again, classified information is leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad, and what's really happening is you're undermining the success of our incredible pilots," Hegseth said.