Latest news with #IranBombing
BBC News
a day ago
- Politics
- BBC News
RAF lakenheath welcomes back US fighter jets after Iran operation
US Air Force fighter jets have returned to a UK base from the Middle East following the bombing operation in F-22A Raptors from the 1st Fighter Wing have arrived at RAF Lakenheath in of the local plane spotting community took pictures of the aircraft as they landed on Thursday.A spokesman for the US military said: "Due to operational security, we cannot provide details about the deployment of aircraft, personnel, or capabilities." While it is not known whether the planes at Lakenheath were airborne over Iran during the bombing of Iran nuclear sites, Donald Trump has already said that F-22s were part of the information shows that the jets in Lakenheath arrived there from the Al Udeid air base in Qatar. Photographer Gavin Mills said he spotted two groups of five aircraft, which were supported by three KC-46 aerial tankers. Suffolk-based aviation analyst Roger Smith, who works in the industry, said the F-22As would most likely have been used to deploy countermeasures in the operation, targeting the Iranian air defence radar "to render those threats useless" The FF tail marking on the F-22As indicates they belong to the 1st Fighter Wing, based at Langley Air Force Base in arrival in the UK followed the recent bombing raid on the Iranian nuclear enrichment plant at Fordo on images have revealed damage to access routes and tunnels at the underground facility.A leaked US intelligence assessment suggested the US strikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear programme. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Senators offer glimpse into actual result of Trump's Iran bombing campaign after classified briefing
Democrats remained skeptical after the classified briefing on the Iran bombing, as Republicans insisted Tehran's facilities had been 'obliterated.' CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Gen. Dan 'Raizin' Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill to give the classified briefings, originally scheduled for Tuesday. Senators emerged from a classified briefing Thursday with sharply diverging assessments of President Donald Trump´s bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, with Republicans calling the mission a clear success and Democrats expressing deep skepticism. Many Republicans left satisfied, though their assessments of how much Iran´s nuclear program was set back by the bombing varied. Sen. Tom Cotton said a 'major blow' and 'catastrophic damage' had been dealt to Iran's facilities. 'Their operational capability was obliterated. There is nobody working there tonight. It was highly effective. There´s no reason to hit those sites anytime soon,' said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Democrats remained doubtful and criticized Trump for not giving Congress more information. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the briefing 'raised more questions than it answered.' Some on the left repeated the mainstream media reports that Trump has raged against suggesting they didn't push back Iran's nuclear program very far. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the strike appears to 'have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months.' 'There's no doubt there was damage done to the program,' said Murphy, but 'allegations that we have obliterated their program just don't seem to stand up to reason.' 'I just do not think the president was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated,' he added. 'It's still too early to know exactly what the battle damage was, and that's normal,' said Democrat and former CIA agent Elissa Slotkin. The session came as senators weighed their support for a resolution affirming that Trump should seek authorization from Congress before launching more military action against Iran. A vote on that resolution could come as soon as Thursday. Democrats, and some Republicans, have said the White House overstepped its authority when it failed to seek the advice of Congress. They also want to know more about the intelligence that Trump relied on when he authorized the attacks. A similar briefing for House members will be held Friday. A preliminary U.S. intelligence report found that Iran´s nuclear program had been set back only a few months, contradicting statements from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the status of Iran´s nuclear facilities, according to two people familiar with the report. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. 'You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated - choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,' Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday. Hegseth went ballistic on reporters at a Pentagon press conference Thursday, lashing out at reports that U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were ineffective. The defense secretary was joined by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, to tout to reporters the 'historic success' of last weekend's B-2 bombing run. A fired-up Hegseth was also adamant that journalists in the Pentagon press corps are decidedly anti-Trump. 'You cheer against Trump so hard, it's like in your DNA and blood,' he accused the press in the room. 'You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes.' 'Your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful, it's irresponsible,' he charged. The press conference - a rarity for Hegseth - came within days of CNN reporting that the U.S. strikes would only set back Iran 's nuclear sites by a couple of months. The report cited seven individuals briefed on a battle damage assessment done by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the Iranian sites. It directly contradicted President Donald Trump and the defense secretary's claim that the sites were destroyed - and clearly enraged the administration. Trump has raged against those reports, calling out CNN and The New York Times and saying that the leakers should be in prison and the reporters fired. The outlets have stood by their reporting. On Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Ratcliffe sent out statements backing Trump´s claims that the facilities were 'completely and fully obliterated.' Gabbard posted on social media that 'new intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran´s nuclear facilities have been destroyed.' She said that if the Iranians choose to rebuild the three facilities, it would 'likely take years to do.' Ratcliffe said in a statement from the CIA that Iran's nuclear program has been 'severely damaged.' He cited 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.' Most Republicans have defended Trump and hailed the tentative ceasefire he brokered in the Israel-Iran war. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., went as far as to question the constitutionality of the War Powers Act , which is intended to give Congress a say in military action. 'The bottom line is the commander in chief is the president, the military reports to the president, and the person empowered to act on the nation´s behalf is the president,' Johnson told reporters. But some Republicans, including some of Trump´s staunchest supporters, are uncomfortable with the strikes and the potential for U.S. involvement in an extended Middle East conflict. 'I think the speaker needs to review the Constitution,' said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. 'And I think there´s a lot of evidence that our Founding Fathers did not want presidents to unilaterally go to war.' Paul would not say whether he would vote for the resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that would require congressional approval for specific military action in Iran. A simple majority in the Senate is needed to pass the resolution and Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage. 'I will have Republican votes, plural,' Kaine said. 'But whether it´s two or 10, I don´t know.' Kaine authored a similar resolution in 2020 aimed at limiting Trump´s authority to launch military operations against Iran. At the time, eight Republicans joined Democrats in approving the resolution. 'I think I have a chance to get some votes from people who are glad that President Trump did this over the weekend, but they´re saying, `Ok, but now if we´re really going to go to war, it should only have to go through the Congress,´' Kaine told The Associated Press before the briefing. While Trump did not seek approval, he sent congressional leaders a short letter Monday serving as his official notice of the strikes, which occurred Saturday between 6:40 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. EDT, or roughly 2:10 a.m. on Sunday in Iran. The letter said the strike was taken 'to advance vital United States national interests, and in collective self-defense of our ally, Israel, by eliminating Iran´s nuclear program.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Fox News star Brit Hume turns on former colleague Pete Hegseth for outburst over Iran bombing intel
Brit Hume jumped to the defense of his Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin and slammed former co-worker Pete Hegseth for their clash over the Iran bombing. Hegseth clashed with much of the press in his briefing on the strikes after several outlets claimed they had only set back Iran's nuclear facilities by months rather than decimating them. However, he shared particular scorn for Fox's National Security Correspondent Griffin, saying: 'Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the President says.' Hume, a longtime fixture at the network, defended Griffin in a week where Tucker Carlson joined the parade of former Fox News anchors giving friendly fire her way. 'I have then, have had and still have, the greatest regard for her. The attack on her was unfair,' Hume said, criticizing Hegseth. He said the attack was not deserved and Griffin's 'professionalism, knowledge and experience at the Pentagon is unmatched.' Hegseth, a former weekend host for Fox News before being tapped to run the Department of Defense for Trump, was openly hostile to the media during a Thursday morning press conference at the Pentagon. The entire briefing was seemingly held to push back on reports indicating that Operation Midnight Hammer - the name of the weekend bombing mission - was ineffective. Griffin, a veteran Pentagon reporter who's been with the channel for decades, asked Hegseth to clarify whether Iran's already enriched uranium was destroyed by the U.S. strikes. 'There's nothing that I've seen that suggests that what we didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit in those locations,' the Pentagon secretary responded cagily. Griffin then asked: 'That's not the question, though. It's about highly enriched uranium. Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Fordow mountain, or some of it?' 'There were satellite photos that showed more than a dozen trucks there two days in advance? Are you certain none of that highly enriched uranium was moved?' 'Of course, we're watching every single aspect,' Hegseth responded before bizarrely turning on his old colleague. 'But Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the President says.' The veteran Pentagon reporter immediately interjected, highlighting to Hegseth how she was the first journalist to reveal how the operation targeted the nuclear facility's ventilation shafts and more. 'I was the first to report about the ventilation shafts on Saturday night, and in fact, I was the first to describe the B-2 bombers, the refueling, the entire mission, with great accuracy,' the Fox News correspondent retorted. 'So I take issue with that,' she added. Satellite imagery showed trucks arriving at the Fordow nuclear facility just days before the strikes, leading to questions about whether the Iranians moved their enriched uranium to another location before the U.S. bombs were dropped. 'I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be — moved or otherwise,' Hegseth later told another reporter. Multiple sources familiar with an initial battle damage assessment told CNN and the New York Times that the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities only set back the country's nuclear program by a few months. 'It is preliminary,' Hegseth said of the leaked assessment on Thursday. 'It points out it is not coordinated with the intelligence community at all, there is low confidence in this report, there are gaps.' The bigger issue, according to Hegseth, is the unpatriotic media. 'You cheer against Trump so hard, it's like in your DNA and blood,' Hegseth charged the reporters in the room. 'You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes.' 'Your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful, it's irresponsible.' The Pentagon secretary also invoked statements from CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Both intelligence chiefs put out statements on Wednesday night stating that the damage done to Iran's nuclear sites will take 'years' to rebuild. 'CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged by recent targeted strikes,' Hegseth said. It came just days after Carlson admitted he wanted her out when he worked at Fox News, referring to her as 'the deepest of the deep state.' As Trump announced a ceasefire - one Carlson reacted to by tweeting: 'Thank God' - he released an episode of his show where he continued to question his ex-employers coverage, zeroing in on Griffin, the network's Chief National Security Correspondent. 'Jennifer Griffin is, even by the standards of Pentagon employees, she's not technically an employee of the Pentagon. She's a shill, obviously, for the deepest of the deep states. But she's like a parody. She's like parody. It's like the whole thing,' Carlson said. Carlson and fellow former Fox host Clayton Morris joked about Griffin's water-carrying for the 'deep state.' 'The crazy thing is Jen Griffin is a liar, but also very liberal, true Trump hater, to the point where I complained about her and I really tried not to complain about other people at Fox when I worked there,' he said. 'She was discrediting the channel, she was such a Trump hatter, and it was emotional.' He even went to one of his superiors at the network and suggested Griffin wasn't helping. Carlson said he asked: 'She's an idiot. She doesn't tell the truth. She misleads our viewers. And she's like a screaming liberal who hates Trump, who our viewers love. So what are we getting out of this?' The response he got from the network was that 'you could not touch Jennifer Griffin.' Morris noted that Griffin has an office at the Pentagon, suggesting she may be presenting bias in her coverage based on how close to her sources she is.
CBS News
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Iran bombing becomes a major topic of discussion among NYC Democratic mayoral primary candidates
The New York City metropolitan area has the largest Jewish population outside Israel, so it is not surprising that the United States' bombing of Iran became topic number one Sunday for Mayor Eric Adams and the Democrats who want to replace him. What was surprising was the warning from Adams and others that the decision to bomb Iran could have repercussions nearly 6,400 miles away here in the five boroughs. Sleeper cells on the minds of the mayor and NYPD leaders The mayor is taking seriously warnings from Washington that Iran could activate sleeper cells here to seek retribution for the bombings. "You're always concerned about sleeper cells," Adams said. "We're going to ensure that we focus on sleeper cells." Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD's commissioner of intelligence and counter terrorism, told CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer her agency has been on alert for days. "We are doubling down on our efforts. We are doubling down, reaching out to partners internationally, federally, doubling down on all the monitoring that we are doing," Weiner said. The mayor said there are currently no credible threats and he wants the deputy commissioner to be proactive -- not reactive. Andrew Cuomo issues warning to New Yorkers The bombing became the top topic of discussion on the Democratic mayoral primary trail on Sunday. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo also warned of something happening here. "As a New Yorker, my natural instinct, as a former governor, former HUD secretary, New York should get ready for possible reprisal from Iran," Cuomo said. Like many of the other candidates, Cuomo took issue with President Trump ordering the attack on Iran without consulting Congress but supported the end result. "I think the world is a safer place without Iran having nuclear weapons, yes," Cuomo said. Other candidates take issue with Trump's decision making Queens Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has faced charges he has insufficiently supported the Jewish state, said of Trump's actions, "Today's unconstitutional military action represents a new, dark chapter in his endless series of betrayals that now threaten to plunge the world deeper into chaos. In a city as global as ours, the impacts of war are felt deeply here." "Deeply troubling. I mean, unconstitutional. It's going to escalate the risks of war and violence and death for Iranians, for Israelis and for Americans," City Comptroller Brad Lander said. "War Powers Act requires congressional approval, which he did not get." "They're concerned that this president has undergone a military strike without authorization of Congress. We all know that this decision is typically made by Congress, so once again this president is overstepping his boundaries and totally disregarding the constitution," City Council President Adrienne Adams said. With the primary just two days away, the candidates had full slates of appearances to get their voters to the polls. Early voting has been robust, but it will all come down to the turnout on Tuesday.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Please don't ask': why the US kept the UK out of the raids on Iran's nuclear sites
The US did not ask to use UK airbases to support its overnight bombing of Iran because that would have required British ministers to take a view on the legality of the attack, according to a former government adviser. Lord Ricketts, a former UK national security chief, said he believed the US concluded it was better not to ask to launch B-2 bombers from the RAF base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean than to be told no. 'Either the Americans worked it out, or were privately told please don't ask, because it would raise fundamental questions about our taking part,' Ricketts said. 'The US has a different view on international law than the UK does.' On Sunday morning, Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said that 'no request was made' by the US for help in the bombing. No British airbases or any other military assets were involved in Operation Midnight Hammer, ministers added. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the UK had been 'given due notice' of President Donald Trump's intention to bomb Iran, though it is unclear how far in advance this may have been of the bombing raid that took place just before midnight UK time. Officials said notification occurred 'shortly before' the US strikes were launched. In the past, Britain has been eager to act as the US's principal military ally in the Middle East, most notably in 2003 when the UK participated in the controversial ground invasion of Iraq when Tony Blair, then the prime minister, sought to work closely with former president George W Bush. But on this occasion the UK has largely acted as a bystander and has not always appeared to read the ultimate intentions of the US president, who is notoriously unpredictable. Last Tuesday at the G7 summit in Banff, Canada from which Trump departed early because of the Iran crisis, Starmer said there was 'nothing the president said that suggests that he's about to get involved in this conflict', having sat next to him at dinner the previous evening. Those present said that the prime minister seemed confident, even unequivocal in his analysis of the situation. After the summit, reports circulated that the government's most senior lawyer, Richard Hermer, was unconvinced that any UK military involvement in attacking Iran would be legal. One official who had seen Hermer's legal advice told the Spectator 'the AG has concerns about the UK playing any role in this except for defending our allies'. B-2 bombers frequently use the RAF base at Diego Garcia, which is a shorter flight over water to Iran but, as is the case with the use of all UK bases by the US air force, it would require British permission. Similar authorisation would be needed for the US to use RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus for refuelling, though that too was not sought. A graphic released by the Pentagon showed seven B-2 bombers flying from their home base at Whiteman, Missouri across the Atlantic and avoiding passing over European countries by flying over the strait of Gibraltar and through the Mediterranean before going on to Iran via Israel, Jordan and Iraq, a flight path of more than 8,000 miles. Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, said on Sunday morning that 'no other country on planet Earth' could have conducted the bombing raid on Iran, which he later emphasised 'was US operated and US led'. Only assistance from Israel was acknowledged by Gen Dan Caine, the US chair of the joint chiefs of staff, in the former of prior attacks to degrade Iranian air defences. Under international law, a country is allowed to fight in self-defence and the prevailing view is that pre-emptive military strikes are legal if it is believed an incoming military threat is imminent – though the US argues the right of self-defence applies broadly against any illegal use of force against itself or its allies. In justifying the bombing raid on Sunday, Hegseth did not mention the question of imminence. He said: 'The president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear programme and the collective self-defence of our troops and our ally Israel.' 'I think to a certain degree the UK government will be relieved' that the US did not ask for help, said Matthew Savill, a former civil servant now with the Royal United Services Institute thinktank. But he cautioned that, despite that, the UK 'could get sucked into the regional blowback' in the form of attacks by Iran or its proxies. On Sunday, UK defence officials said that additional steps had been taken to protect British forces in the Middle East after the US bombing. Force protection at sites such as Akrotiri in Cyprus – where at least 14 Typhoon fighters are stationed – and naval bases in Oman and Bahrain were at the 'highest level,' the defence secretary, John Healey, said. Starmer called for restraint in the response to US strikes on Iran, warning of the possibility of escalation beyond the Middle East. The prime minister spoke to the king of Jordan and the sultan of Oman and called for talks that would end the threat posed by Iran's nuclear programme. 'It is important that we now de-escalate the situation, stabilise the region and get the parties back around the table to negotiate,' he told broadcasters on Sunday morning. 'I'm very clear in my own mind that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon that is the greatest threat to stability in the region.'
