President Donald Trump took to social media to crow over his bombing of Iran on Saturday night. “Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” he wrote.

Current and former Pentagon officials question Trump’s certainty that three of Iran’s nuclear sites were “totally obliterated” by U.S. attacks. One current official called the post-strike assessment, offered in the immediate wake of the Saturday attacks, “overblown.” All said the destruction at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan was extensive, but that the full extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear capabilities was not immediately clear.

“Overblown and premature,” the defense official, commenting about Trump’s claims on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, told The Intercept by instant message. “What else is new[?]” That assessment was echoed by a former defense official who also spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the nature of his current employment.

In the wake of such criticism, Trump doubled down. “Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term!” he posted on TruthSocial on Sunday. “The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!”

“From a targeting standpoint, ‘destruction’ means there is absolutely nothing left. These facilities were not destroyed by formal definition. Further, there is no way to assess the full scale of damage against such targets without boots on the ground,” said Wes Bryant, a former Pentagon official who previously worked as a Special Operations joint terminal attack controller, or JTAC, and called in thousands of strikes against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups across the greater Middle East.

Bryant added: “Suffice to say that the use of these facilities has been denied for the near or considerable future, and the strikes no doubt had a psychological effect on the regime. However, to state that any potential nuclear weapons development on the part of Iran has been permanently stopped would be incredibly naive.”

Six U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bombers reportedly dropped 12 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators — 30,000-pound bombs colloquially known as “bunker busters” — on the heavily fortified Fordow nuclear........

© The Intercept