Satellite imagery captured ahead of U.S. strikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites showed “unusual” movement around the entrance to Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility.
Pictures taken on Thursday and Friday showed “unusual truck and vehicular activity” close to the entrance of the underground Fordow complex south of Tehran, satellite imagery firm Maxar said late on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday announced U.S. strikes on Fordow, a complex built deep into a mountain roughly 60 miles from the capital, as well as attacks on the nuclear sites of Natanz and Isfahan in central Iran. Tehran had warned of “irreparable damage” to the U.S. if Washington became directly involved in the Middle East conflict.
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but international observers believe the country has enriched uranium far beyond what is needed for non-nuclear use. Israel, the U.S. and other American allies have consistently said they would not tolerate Tehran gaining a nuclear weapon.
A total of 16 cargo trucks were spotted on the access road leading up to the Fordow tunnel entrance on Thursday, but most had moved to a spot 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) northwest of the access road by the following day, Maxar said.
New trucks and multiple bulldozers had appeared close to the main entrance by Friday, with one truck very close to the main tunnel entrance, the satellite imagery provider said.
The significance of the activity is not yet clear, but Iranian state media reported key nuclear sites had been evacuated ahead of U.S. attacks , with enriched uranium moved “to a safe location.”
Iran was producing considerable amounts of highly enriched uranium at Fordow, but it is not immediately apparent how much was still at the site in recent days, William Alberque, a senior adjunct fellow at the Pacific Forum and a former director of NATO ‘s Arms Control, Disarmament and WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] Non-Proliferation Center, told Newsweek.
Trump said on Saturday evening the U.S.’ “massive precision strikes” were a “spectacular military success,” adding: “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
Experts said it would likely take several of American GBU-57/B bombs—weighing in at a massive 30,000 pounds—to take out more than just the entrance to Fordow. An unnamed U.S. official told Reuters that B-2s were involved in the strikes, while the U.S. hit Natanz and Isfahan with Tomahawk submarine-launched cruise missiles, two senior Pentagon officials told CBS News.
