“This was a devastating attack, and it knocked them for a loop,” Trump said as his administration scrambled to support his claims – made only hours after the Sunday attack.
In a statement posted to X, CNN defended its reporter, saying the network stood “100 per cent behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically her and her colleagues’ reporting”.
“CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence. We have extensively covered President Trump’s own deep scepticism about it.
“However, we do not believe it is reasonable to criticise CNN reporters for accurately reporting on the existence of the assessment and accurately characterising its findings, which are in the public interest.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other military officials planned to hold a news conference on Thursday morning, Washington time, to respond to the reports.
Trump said the officials would speak “in order to fight for the dignity of our great American pilots. These patriots were very upset!“. He said the news conference “will prove both interesting and irrefutable.”
CIA director John Ratcliffe also released a statement saying credible intelligence indicated that Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged by recent US strikes and that it would take years to be rebuilt.
“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,” he said.
This echoes a statement by the Israel Atomic Energy Commission that Iran’s nuclear efforts have been delayed “by many years”.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei has conceded to Al Jazeera that there has been significant damage from the strikes by US B-2 bombers.
with AP
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