The United States struck Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility on Saturday, several media reports claimed, as the American and Israeli air forces continued their bombing campaign against regime targets.

Iranian media said US-Israeli forces attacked the Shahid Ahmadi-Roshan Natanz enrichment complex on Saturday morning. Technical experts found that no radioactive leaks had occurred, and nearby residents were not at risk.

In response to a query by The Times of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said that it did not conduct any strikes in the area and that it could not comment on American activities.

Israel’s Kan news reported that the US had indeed struck the facility, using “bunker buster” bombs to target the site. It cited unspecified sources.

In June 2025, during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, the US dropped more than a dozen GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on the Fordo and Natanz underground nuclear facilities.

Following Saturday’s attack, the UN atomic watchdog said it was looking into the matter.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, called for “military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident,” but the UN watchdog confirmed that no increase in off-site radiation levels had been reported.

The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on Natanz.

“This is a blatant violation of international law,” the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

Israel and the US launched their campaign against Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize the regime and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile capacities. Iran has responded with missile and drone strikes across the region, and its proxies in Iraq and Lebanon have also carried out attacks, with Israel launching massive airstrikes in Lebanon in response to the Hezbollah terror group’s rocket barrages.

Israel says attacks will intensify

During a wave of airstrikes in Tehran overnight, the IDF said it hit dozens of targets related to Iran’s production of ballistic missiles.

According to the military, the targets hit by the Israeli Air Force included a key complex of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used to manufacture ballistic missile components; a storage facility for missile components; a complex of the Iranian defense ministry tasked with producing missile fuel; and another missile components factory.

The IDF said it also hit several air defense systems in the Tehran area as part of the wave of strikes.

Additionally, an Israeli Air Force fighter jet came under anti-aircraft fire over Iran, the military said.

According to the IDF, a surface-to-air missile launch was identified toward the jet.

“The crew acted according to procedures, no damage was caused to the aircraft, and the mission was completed as planned,” the IDF said in a statement. No further details were given.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it had hit an Israeli F-16 fighter jet over the country’s center, though it was unclear if it was referring to the same incident.

“An F-16 hostile enemy fighter jet belonging to the Zionist regime was struck at 3:45 a.m. in central Iran,” the Guards said on its Sepah News website.

IAF pilots have come under Iranian anti-aircraft missile fire numerous times amid the war. In one case, the military said a fighter pilot was “close to being hit.”

Also on Saturday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that strikes against Iran would intensify.

“This week, the intensity of the strikes that the IDF and the US military will carry out against the Iranian terror regime and the infrastructure it relies upon will significantly escalate,” he said during an assessment with military officials.

Katz said that Israel was “determined to continue leading the offensive against the Iranian terror regime, to decapitate its commanders and thwart its strategic capabilities, until every security threat to the State of Israel and to US interests in the region is removed.”

“The IDF is strong, and the Israeli home front is strong, and we will not stop until all war objectives are achieved,” he added.

US says 8,000 Iranian targets hit

The Chief of the US Central Command Adm. Brad Cooper said that the American military had struck over 8,000 targets in Iran since the start of the war, while noting that Iranian attacks have continued to decline.

“So far, we’ve struck over 8,000 military targets, including 130 Iranian vessels, constituting the largest elimination of a navy over a three-week period since World War II,” Cooper said in a video update.

“My operational assessment continues to be: Iran’s combat capability is on a steady decline as our offensive strikes ramp up,” he said.

Cooper said the US military is “taking out thousands of Iranian missiles, advanced attack drones, and all of Iran’s navy, which they use to harass international shipping.”

“Their navy is not sailing, their tactical fighters are not flying, and they’ve lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at the high rates seen at the beginning of the conflict,” he said, adding, “our progress is obvious.”

Update from CENTCOM Commander on Operation Epic Fury: pic.twitter.com/8yTLrVy4jk Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#336x260_InContent_1")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId: '336x260_InContent_1', baseDivId: '336x260_InContent_1', } ]); }); } — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 21, 2026

Update from CENTCOM Commander on Operation Epic Fury: pic.twitter.com/8yTLrVy4jk

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 21, 2026

Cooper also said that the American military remains “zeroed in on dismantling Iran’s decades-old threat to the free flow of commerce throughout the Strait of Hormuz.

“For example, earlier this week, we dropped multiple 5,000-pound bombs on an underground facility located along Iran’s coastline. The Iranian regime used the hardened underground facility to discreetly store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers, and other equipment that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping,” he said.

“We not only took out the facility but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements,” Cooper stated.

“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result, and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” he added.

Iran’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas normally flows, and the numerous attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East, have sent crude oil prices soaring.

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2026 US-Israel war with Iran

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Iran's nuclear program

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