Hereās the latest.
The United States dropped bombs on three nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday, President Trump announced, bringing the U.S. military directly into Israelās war with Iran after days of uncertainty about whether he would intervene in the conflict.
āAll planes are now outside of Iran air space,ā he said in a social media post on Saturday night, adding that a āfull payloadā of bombs had been dropped on Fordo. āAll planes are safely on their way home.ā
The three sites that Mr. Trump said were hit on Saturday night included Iranās two major uranium enrichment centers the mountain facility at Fordo and a larger enrichment plant at Natanz, which Israel struck several days ago with smaller weapons. The third site, near the ancient city of Isfahan, is where Iran is believed to keep its near-bomb-grade enriched uranium, which inspectors saw just two weeks ago.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, but Israel regards Iranās potential for developing a nuclear weapon as a threat to its survival.
Israelās foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said on Saturday that Israelās bombing campaign had pushed Iran two or three years back from the capability to make a nuclear weapon. Still, Israel has yet to fully destroy some of the most significant nuclear enrichment sites, chief among them Fordo.
Iranās president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Iran would not reduce nuclear activities to zero āunder any circumstances,ā rejecting a U.S. demand, according to Mehr news agency, which is affiliated with the Iranian government. Iran, he said, was āready to talk and cooperateā but he warned it would continue its military retaliation against Israel.
Here is what else to know:
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Saturday strikes: Israel launched a wave of airstrikes against missile sites, a nuclear facility and munitions storage sites in Iran, while Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles and launched * drones into Israel. The southern region that Israel targeted in Iran would likely be on any potential flight path used by U.S. warplanes on the way to strike Fordo.
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Commanders killed: Israelās military said it killed Mohammed Said Izadi, Behnam Shahriyari and Aminpour Joudaki, commanders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Mr. Izadi and Mr. Shahriyari were both senior officials in the Quds Force, which oversees and supports proxy militias around the Middle East, according to Israelās defense ministry. The deaths were not immediately confirmed by Iran.
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Evacuations: The U.S. Department of State has begun evacuating Americans from Israel, said the American ambassador, Mike Huckabee. In a post on social media, he encouraged Americans in Israel and the West Bank to fill out a form requesting evacuation, which could be by cruise ship, commercial flight, charter flight or a flight operated by the U.S. government.
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Whatās next? If Mr. Trump decides to send American bombers to help Israel destroy a uranium enrichment facility in Iran, it will most likely initiate a more dangerous phase in the war. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/world/middleeast/heres-the-latest.html