US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has unleashed on journalists in a bizarre briefing at the Pentagon, saying their "hatred" of Donald Trump was behind efforts to verify the extent of the damage to the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran.
Mr Hegseth appeared emotional over earlier reporting by CNN and The New York Times based on a leaked intelligence report that cast doubt on Mr Trump's assertion that Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated".
There had been hopes Mr Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, would provide evidence of the impact of the strikes.
Since the attack on Saturday night, local time, media organisations across the world have been scrambling to verify claims from the White House that the site had been obliterated, using satellite imagery to get a sense of the visible damage as well as Iran's preparation.
But in the press briefing, organised for 8am on Thursday, Mr Hegseth singled out the press corps, as well as individual reporters in the room.
He even slammed Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin, saying she had been "about the worst".
"Specifically you the press corps, because you cheer against Trump so hard, it's in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump, because you want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes," Mr Hegseth said.
"You have to hope maybe they weren't effective, maybe the way the Trump administration has represented them isn't true.
"There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that because of the hatred of this press corps are undermined because your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful. It's irresponsible."
The preliminary assessment, parts of which were leaked to US press, reportedly found the weekend strikes only set back the country's nuclear program by a few months.
Mr Hegseth said that leaked initial assessment was "low confidence", and had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran's nuclear program was severely damaged by the strikes and that it would take years to rebuild.
"You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated, choose your word. This was a historically successful attack and we should celebrate it as Americans," he said.
CIA director John Ratcliffe said: "[The] CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's Nuclear Program 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."
Several experts cautioned that Iran may have moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of Fordow before the strike and could be hiding it, and other nuclear components, in locations unknown to Israel, the US and UN nuclear inspectors.
They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance to the facility.
Mr Hegseth said he was unaware of any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium to shield it from the US strikes.
"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," he said at the briefing.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the attack.
Head of the UN nuclear agency Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday his inspectors' top priority was returning to Iran's nuclear facilities to assess the impact of the strikes on Tehran's nuclear programme.
At a White House briefing on Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt again said the sites were "obliterated".
"Despite agenda-driven leaks by the fake news media aimed at undermining this incredible accomplishment achieved by President Trump and our brave fighter pilots, there is broad consensus emerging already that Iran's nuclear capabilities were indeed destroyed," she said.
Ms Leavitt said the US and Iran were now on a "diplomatic path", but said there were no talks scheduled "for now".
"We continue to be in close communication with the Iranians and through our intermediaries as well. We want to ensure we can get to a place where Iran agrees to a non-enrichment civil nuclear program," she said.
Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, released a video overnight saying the US was exaggerating the damage to the nuclear facilities.
Iran currently has no plan to meet with the United States, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday in an interview on state TV.
Operation 15 years in the making
During the Pentagon briefing, General Caine spoke at length about the crew involved in Operation Midnight Hammer and about the young team responsible for the protection of the US base in Qatar that was hit with retaliatory strikes.
He talked about the experience of military members responsible for intercepting missiles inbound from Iran at the Al Udeid base, saying: "You know you're going to have approximately two minutes, 120 seconds, either to succeed or fail."
As well as the US air defender weapons, General Caine detailed the planning that went into the so-called "bunker busting bombs" that were dropped on Iran.
In 2009, an officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran, he said.
"He was shown some photos and some highly classified intelligence of what looked like a major construction project in the mountains of Iran. He was tasked to study this facility, work with the intelligence community to understand it. And he was soon joined by an additional teammate," General Caine said.
"For more than 15 years, this officer and his teammate lived and breathed this single target, Fordow — a critical element of Iran's covert nuclear weapons program.
"He studied the geology, he watched the Iranians dig it out, he watched the construction, the weather, the discard material … where the materials came from, he looked at the vent shaft … the environmental control systems, every nook, every crater, every piece of equipment going in and every piece of equipment going out."
General Caine said from the first days of their mission, the officers believed they knew what the facility was for: "You do not build a multi-layered underground bunker complex with centrifuges and other equipment in a mountain for any peaceful purpose."
"Along the way, they realised we did not have a weapon that could adequately strike and kill this target, so they began a journey to work with industry and other tacticians to develop the GBU57," he said.
He said then, more than 15 years later, the president had been ready to use the weapon.
General Caine described the exact spot its bombs entered Fordow and the planning that led up to that moment.
He explained there was a central "exhaust shaft with two additional ventilation shafts on either side".
"The United States decided to strike these two ventilation shafts, seen here on the main graphic, as the primary point of entry into the mission space," General Caine said.
"In the days preceding the attack against Fordow, the Iranians attempted to cover the shafts with concrete.
"I won't share this specific dimensions of the concrete cap, but you should know that we know what the dimensions of those concrete caps were. The planners had to account for this. They accounted for everything. The cap was forcibly removed by the first weapon, and the main shaft was uncovered."
General Caine was pressed on whether he agreed with Mr Trump's use of the word "obliterated" to describe the impact on Iran's nuclear facilities, but deferred, saying it was not his role to make that assessment.
'One of the greatest' press conferences
The operation has been widely reported as a precision strike that was executed according to plan, including sophisticated aerial manoeuvres throughout the 18-hour flight from the Missouri base from where the B-2 bombers launched to their targets over Iran.
Members of the media have been seeking verification of the impact once the bombs were dropped.
The American media's coverage of leaked assessment reports has said it was preliminary and a clear picture was yet to form.
Mr Trump attacked CNN as "disgusting and incompetent" in a post on Truth Social overnight.
He said the press conference was designed to "fight for the dignity of the American pilots" involved in Operation Midnight Hammer.
Afterwards, he wrote that Mr Hegseth's performance at the press conference was "professional".
"One of the greatest, most professional, and most 'confirming' News Conferences I have ever seen!" the president wrote on social media.
"The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!"
Mr Trump also emphasised his belief that Iran did not remove nuclear material from its facilities before the US attacked.
"Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" he wrote.
ABC/Reuters
