1h ago
20.24 BST
White
House denies intelligence report that Iran strikes were a flop
The White
House has dismissed as “flat out wrong” a leaked intelligence report that
claims US airstrikes at the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program only “by
months”.
The
preliminary assessment by one US intelligence agency of the attacks on three
Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, reported by CNN, indicates that the targets
were not destroyed, as Donald Trump and other administration officials have
insisted.
The
assessment was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s
intelligence arm, the news outlet said, citing three unnamed sources. It is
based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the
aftermath of the US strikes, CNN reported one of the sources as saying.
The
assessment is ongoing and could change, CNN said.
In an
address to the nation on Sunday night, Trump stated: “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.”
Two of
the sources, however, said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not
destroyed, and the third said the country’s centrifuges were largely “intact”.
“So the
(DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” the
source said.
On
Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the report as
“a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter
pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission”.
She said
in a statement to CNN:
This
alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was
still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence
community.
Everyone
knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their
targets: total obliteration.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário