U.S. launches airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites

President Donald Trump addressed the nation late Saturday night and said the U.S. military conducted successful strikes on Iran’s Fordo, Isfahan, and Natanz atomic sites. The goal of the strikes was to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment abilities, Trump said. The president characterized Iran as the bully of the Middle East and said the United States had lost roughly 1,000 people to Iran’s terrorism. Iran had a stark choice: make peace, or risk further U.S. military action against many more targets that would be much easier to strike, Trump said. The president went on to thank God and the U.S. military for making the strikes possible.

How has Israel responded? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a brief address Saturday evening in which he congratulated Trump on what he characterized as a bold decision that would change history. He again touted the actions the Israel Defense Forces took since Operation Rising Lion began on June 13, but added that America’s actions Saturday night were truly unsurpassed. The United States acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime the world’s most dangerous weapons, Netanyahu said.

How did Iran respond? The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran issued a statement shortly after the attacks characterizing them as a brutal act that violates international law, particularly the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, according to reporting by the state-controlled Tehran Times. Hossein Shariatmadari, a spokesman for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for missile strikes against the U.S. naval fleet in Bahrain, as well as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to American, British, German, and French ships, according to reporting by the privately owned, U.K.-based Iran International.

Dig deeper: Read Elizabeth Russell’s report about an Israeli hospital hit by an Iranian missile earlier this week.