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Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: A 5.2 magnitude earthquake has struck Iran. 1:31 PM · Jun 20, 2025

The Iranian government put its key nuclear facility about 300 feet below ground at Fordow. A quick look at the area with Google Earth shows that it’s a mountainous area, and all that rock over the enrichment facility would seem to be pretty good protection. But just like a police officer wearing body armor, the appearance of invulnerability is deceiving. The United States put NORAD’s facility about 2,000 feet below the top of Cheyenne Mountain for the same reason. The granite overhead offers great protection from attack, with Cheyenne Mountain designed to withstand a 30-megaton nuclear blast from 1.2 miles...

"Bunker buster" bombs are not all the same, even if they all share the same name. Israel can deploy "bunker buster" bombs, but only of the 2000 lb variety. These can be very useful to strike some buried targets, particularly tunnels and certain reinforced bunkers. But the technology dates back to the 1970s, and already by 1990, the defensive capability of bunkers had outstripped the ability of existing weapons to reliably destroy them. That's why, during the buildup to the Gulf War, a new bunker buster was developed in a rush project, resulting in the laser-guided GBU-28, which was deployed...

Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said Tuesday that Israel will not stop fighting the war before it has damaged Iran’s Fordow (or Fordo) nuclear facility, which is buried deep within a mountain. The Times of Israel reported:Israel’s operation against Iran “will not end without damaging the Fordo nuclear facility,” promises National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi in an interview with Channel 12.The site, 90 meters (295 feet) underground, houses thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium. Israel’s conventional munitions can’t reach that deep, and it would take the US joining the fight to knock it out from the air.“I don’t know...

Praising the talks between U.S. and Iran as a positive development that could avert a catastrophic war, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi warned that the Islamic Republic has the materials necessary to break out toward a nuclear weapon. “Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon at this moment, but it has the material,” the official told the Financial Times in an in-depth interview. Israel’s threat of military action means that “the Iranian thing has incredible potential to become catastrophic," Grossi warned. "If there is a failure in negotiation, this will imply most probably military action.” Worse still,...

An Israeli security source on Saturday confirmed to Sky News Arabic that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's successor, Hashem Safieddine, was eliminated in a Friday night strike. According to Al Hadath, commanders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were eliminated together with Safieddine. On Friday, Israel estimated that Safieddine was injured in the strike, since those who were with him in the underground area which was struck could not have escaped the site alive. In addition, it is estimated that alongside Safieddine, senior Hezbollah intelligence officials were also present at the site and were also injured. Safieddine, 60, is a cousin of...

What we know Israel launched intense strikes on Beirut targeting Hezbollah's presumed new leader as he met with other senior militants, an Israeli official told NBC News. The IDF is still assessing whether Hashem Safieddine was killed. An Israeli airstrike cut off a key road that thousands of Lebanese had been using to cross into relative safety in Syria. Israel's bombardment has displaced more than a million people, filling government shelters, and forcing others to sleep in the streets of Beirut. Iran’s supreme leader vowed his country and its allies would not back down after its "brilliant operation" against Israel...

Nasrallah’s presumed successor said to be target of heavy Israeli strike in Beirut No word yet from army on whether it targeted Hashem Safieddine * IDF, Shin Bet say head of Hamas terror network among the 18 Palestinians reported killed in Tulkarem airstrike

The Hezbollah Shura Council on Sunday chose Hashem Safieddine as Secretary General to replace Hassan Nasrallah, who was eliminated in an Israeli airstrike on Friday, Saudi news outlets Al Hadath and Al Arabiya reported. Safieddine currently serves as the head of Hezbollah's Executive Council. He is Nasrallah's cousin from his mother's side. His brother, Abdullah, is Hezbollah's envoy to Iran. In addition, Safieddine is one of six clerics currently serving on Hezbollah's Shura Council. His son, Said Ridah, is married to Zayneb Soleimani, the daughter of former Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, who was eliminated in 2020. Hezbollah denied the...

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it is creating a task force to take a fresh look at drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations linked to Hezbollah after an investigative report last month claimed that the Obama administration turned a blind eye to such activities to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. The task force, dubbed the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team (HFNT), will begin its work by reviewing investigations stemming from Project Cassandra, a campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) targeting the Lebanese terror group’s actions. According to a Politico report published last month, officials with the Obama Justice...

One of Iran's top military commanders is believed to have been killed in an Israeli attack that targeted the new leader of terror group Hezbollah. Esmail Qaani, head of the Quds Force – the elite wing of the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – was reported to be with the new leader of Hezbollah, Hashem Safieddine, who was targeted in his HQ bunker in Beirut by the Israelis. The air strike on Thursday night during heavy bombing of southern Beirut was mounted as Safieddine held a secret meeting with other Hezbollah leaders in the underground intelligence headquarters.

The 64-year-old's body is believed to have been intact when it was pulled from the rubble, suggesting he had not sustained physical wounds as the building around him exploded. Instead, he had suffocated as toxic fumes leeched into the underground shelter where he was hiding, Israel's Channel 12 reported on Sunday evening. The report suggested he was likely to have died in "agony" as the fumes and smoke from the explosions gradually filled the buried room, and made breathing impossible.... Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been close friends with Nasrallah, has called for vengeance and urged Muslims...

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of the possible sale of arms to Israel on May 18, 2015. The details were sent for congressional review on Tuesday.A statement from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said, “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives and will not change the power balance in the region.”It notes that Israel “already has these munitions in its inventory” and...

A US F-15E Strike Eagle carrying a GBU-12 and a GBU-28 bomb during a training run in Utah in 2010. (photo credit: US Air Force) Amid American efforts to allay Sunni Arab concerns over the nuclear deal with Iran, officials are reportedly considering selling Saudi Arabia bunker buster bombs, which are currently only offered to Israel. American officials said privately this week that the Obama administration is considering selling GBU-28 bunker buster bombs to the Gulf monarchy, the Washington Times reported this week. Talks for the sale are taking place in secret, since according to a 2008 congressional mandate, the...

The Navy is working to make the Tomahawk missile a better bunker buster and allow it to distinguish targets on the move better. U.S. Central Command recently sponsored development and testing of a new, more penetrating Tomahawk warhead called the Joint Multiple Effects Warhead System, or JMEWS, according to Capt. Joe Mauser, Tomahawk program manager. Testing analyzed the ability of the programmable warhead to integrate onto the most advanced Block IV Tomahawk missile, a weapon which can loiter over targets, send back single frame images and change course in flight via a GPS guidance system. The JMEWS would give the...

The Pentagon's biggest bunker-busting bomb has been upgraded with one task in mind: taking out suspected Iranian nuclear facilities built deep under the mountains of the Islamic Republic's northern region. At 30,000 pounds, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator packs brute force and advanced features meant to enable it to destroy Iran's most fortified nuclear site. The bomb is nearly a third bigger than the MOAB, or so-called "Mother of all Bombs," the 22,000-pound previous generation of bunker busters first built in 2003 but never used outside of tests. Officials are confident the newest bunker-buster can dismantle even the deepest and most...

The Bomber That Carries America's Biggest Bunker-Busters Is Getting Major Upgrades Michael Kelley Aug. 9, 2012, 3:24 PM |U.S. Air Force The Air Force's B-1B "Lancer" multi-mission bomber is getting some notable upgrades in the next year, David Cenciotti at The Aviationist reports. Known as "Bone" in aviation circles, the B-1B is capable of accommodating the largest payloads in the U.S. Air Force inventory – including the the 30,000 lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) that is now ready to bust bunkers 200 feet down and through 60 feet of reinforced concrete. In June, Cenciotti reported that the B-1B "will be...

Its been nearly eight months since the Pentagon sent its largest and most powerful bomb, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), back to Boeing for modifications necessary to take out Iranian nuclear facilities, but the Air Force says it's now ready to go. Jeff Schogol at Defense News reports that Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says that while the MOP bomb continues to be refined and optimized, the Pentagon feels the 30,000 pound piece of ordnance is now sufficient to strike whatever targets the military may have in mind. While the bomb went back to the drawing board with Pentagon planners...

The United States and Iran have engaged in a war of words over their military capabilities in the last few weeks. But if an actual war breaks out, it will not be a war of U.S. bombs versus Iranian bombs, but of U.S. bombs versus Iran's bunkers. Iran's network of nuclear facilities, some of which are underground, would be the primary target of an Israeli or U.S. attack intended to destroy Iran's suspected clandestine weapons program. As the rhetoric has heated up, the United States has been talking up its military capabilities. Whether American or Israeli bombs indeed could penetrate...

"Two days ago Obama held a press conference in which he openly prevaricated and disinformed the world about the true nature of his meeting with Israel PM Netanyahu. Today we find what was truly discussed, courtesy of Israel's Maariv newspaper, Spiegel and Reuters, which all tell us that it was a simple case of quid pro quo, namely that Barack Obama would supply Israel with bunker-busters and refueling planes if Bibi promised to delay an Iran attack until after the presidential election. The implication is simple - avoid an oil price shock this summer and delay it until next winter...