US Strikes Destroyed Only One Of Three Iranian Nuclear Sites: Intel Assessment

The intelligence-gathering saga and (highly politicized) efforts to ascertain just how much of Iran’s nuclear program was truly destroyed during the US attacks on Iran called “Midnight Hammer” on June 22 continues. And now NBC is reporting that it was likely much less damage inflicted on two among the three facilities than previously thought.

“One of the three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran struck by the United States last month was mostly destroyed, setting work there back significantly,” the Thursday report says. “But the two others were not as badly damaged and may have been degraded only to a point where nuclear enrichment could resume in the next several months if Iran wants it to, according to a recent U.S. assessment of the destruction caused by the military operation, five current and former U.S. officials familiar with the assessment told NBC News.”

The assessment was issued in a briefing to some US lawmakers, as well as American defense officials and even allied countries in recent days, officials told NBC.

Another revelation is that US Central Command (CENTCOM) “had developed a much more comprehensive plan to strike Iran that would have involved hitting three additional sites in an operation that would have stretched for several weeks instead of a single night, according to a current US official and two former US officials.”

Of course, it is normal and standard practice for Pentagon planners to develop and present multiple ‘options’ for any potential military course of action when briefing the Commander-in-Chief.

Trump balked at the weeks-long plan version of an attack, seeing in it a recipe for getting the US sucked into another Middle East quagmire:

President Donald Trump was briefed on that plan, but it was rejected because it was at odds with his foreign policy instincts to extract the United States from conflicts abroad, not dig deeper into them, as well as the possibility of a high number of casualties on both sides, one of the current officials and one of the former officials said.

“We were willing to go all the way in our options, but the president did not want to,” one of the sources with knowledge of the plan said.

Despite this new US intelligence briefing saying that two of the sites among the three (Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan) were less badly damaged than previously believed, the Trump administration is sticking by the president’s insistence that they were all totally “obliterated”.

“As the President has said and experts have verified, Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement responding to the NBC report. “America and the world are safer, thanks to his decisive action.”

‘Iran could resume nuclear enrichment in next several months’

NBC, citing US officials, claims Trump’s strikes ‘destroyed only 1 of 3 Iranian nuclear sites’

1 of 3 mostly destroyed, other 2 ‘not as badly damaged’

Footage: Fordow Nuclear site before & after US strikes pic.twitter.com/dL6sGqJVm2

— RT (@RT_com) July 17, 2025

The White House has of late additionally warned that it is ready to attack Iran’s nuclear sites again if it is perceived that the Islamic Republic is trying to revive and utilize its sites and uranium enrichment capability. Certainly Israel would welcome such a move, as would Iran hawks in Congress. Some are already advocating for more US militarism.