As the U.S. concludes its military campaign in Iran, American intelligence intercepted private conversations among senior Iranian officials discussing last week’s airstrikes, revealing Tehran’s internal assessment that the strikes were “less devastating than they had expected,” The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing four sources familiar with the classified intelligence circulating within the U.S. government.
The intercepted conversations offer a markedly different view from that of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed the strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. In contrast, the Iranian officials were quoted as saying, “The strikes directed by President Donald Trump were not as destructive and extensive as they had anticipated.”
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Satellite image of Iran's nuclear facility at Fordow
(Photo: MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/Handout via REUTERS, SATELLITE IMAGE ©2025 MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES / AFP)
The Trump administration pushed back on the report, accusing The Washington Post of “helping people commit felonies by publishing out-of-context leaks.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the Iranian assessment, saying, “The notion that unnamed Iranian officials know what happened under hundreds of feet of rubble is nonsense. Their nuclear weapons program is over.”
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At a press briefing Thursday, U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said Trump “directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history — and it was a resounding success,” detailing the strike on Iran’s heavily fortified Fordow nuclear facility.
Speaking alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Caine did not use the term “obliteration,” but emphasized that the mission succeeded in delivering severe damage to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
US President Donald Trump on Iran's nuclear facilities
(Video: Reuters)
According to Caine, twelve GBU-57 bunker-busting bombs, each weighing over 13 tons, were dropped on Fordow by B-2 stealth bombers. The complex, buried 90 meters into a mountainside, was struck through its air vents—targeted precisely after two initial bombs blasted through layers of reinforced concrete. Five additional bombs were dropped on each of the two exposed points.
The bombs penetrated with a speed exceeding 1,100 kilometers per hour and detonated inside what Caine called the “mission area” of the underground facility. “They went exactly where they were supposed to go,” he said.
One pilot reportedly described the explosion as “the brightest flash I’ve ever seen,” adding that it lit up the night sky “as if it were daylight.”