Truth about success of US airstrikes on Iran lies deep underground

The B-2 bombers have returned to their US base, but questions about the success of their airstrikes last weekend hang in the air.

President Donald Trump is pushing back hard against a leaked preliminary intelligence report, suggesting the audacious bombing raid only set Iran's nuclear ambition back "by months".

"It's destroyed… Iran will not have nuclear. We blew it up. It's blown to kingdom come," Mr Trump told a news conference.

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A statement from CIA director John Ratcliffe backed that up. He said: "[The] CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear programme has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes.

"This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years."

But Democrats say the president was claiming Iran's underground facilities had been "obliterated" long before any intelligence had been received.

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who flew 39 combat missions in the first Gulf War, said: "He's just saying that because he wants that to be the narrative.

"He said it the night of the strike, without any information, not even satellite imagery, and certainly without any information about what happened underneath 200 feet of rock and granite and dirt.

"The likelihood of something underground like that being obliterated is incredibly low," he added.

Senator Kelly blamed Mr Trump for Iran's enrichment growing from "less than 4% to, public reporting, 60%", accusing him of "chucking the Obama deal out the window".

The leaking of the classified report from the Pentagon and subsequent debate has enraged US defence secretary Pete Hegseth.

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"If you want to make an assessment of what happened at Fordow [nuclear site], you better get a big shovel and go really deep because Iran's nuclear programme is obliterated," Mr Hegseth said.

"Those that dropped the bombs precisely in the right place know exactly what happened when they exploded, and you know who else knows? Iran."

The White House is railing against what it calls the "fake news media" for reporting the content of the leaked report.

But the success of a military operation has become a battle of political narratives in Congress.

That will last longer than a 12-day war because the truth lies buried, quite literally, deep underground.