Overview

• At a June 26 press conference, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused major news outlets of undermining the strikes by focusing on a leaked preliminary DIA assessment described as low-confidence.
• CIA Director John Ratcliffe asserted that new intelligence confirmed the operation destroyed key nuclear facilities and severely damaged Iran’s overall nuclear program.
• Gen. Dan Caine detailed 15 years of planning by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to deploy 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs through ventilation shafts at the Fordow complex.
• Operation Midnight Hammer, carried out on June 21–22, involved seven B-2 bombers, F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters, over 125 aircraft, Tomahawk missiles and precision-guided munitions against Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the airstrikes as ineffectual, and the fate of Iran’s near-weapons-grade uranium stockpile remains unaccounted for.