‘Hiroshima, Nagasaki ended a war too’: Trump says US strikes on Iran nuclear sites were ‘very severe’

After the US Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA’s) report stated that the US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities only set back the programme by a few months and did not ‘obliterate’ them, President Donald Trump said the intelligence was inconclusive and that the damage was very severe. He also compared the strikes to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Trump, who claimed to have ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear facilities, has not disputed the DIA assessment but described it as preliminary. 

"The intelligence was very inconclusive…The intelligence says, 'We don't know, it could have been very severe.' That's what the intelligence says. So I guess that's correct, but I think we can take the 'we don't know.' It was very severe. It was obliteration,” he told reporters at the NATO Summit while meeting with Secretary General Mark Rutte.

While lashing out at the media for reporting on the assessment, he called the reports an attack on the pilots who flew the bombing mission over the weekend. He added that the US strikes were responsible for ending the war.

"When you look at Hiroshima, if you look at Nagasaki, that ended a war, too. This ended a war in a different way," said Trump, in reference to the nuclear strikes on the Japanese cities in 1945, which concluded World War II. 

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also cast doubt on the DIA report. He said, "When you actually look at the report - by the way, it was a top secret report - it was preliminary, it was low-confidence. This is a political motive here."

Hegseth said that the FBI is investigating a potential leak related to a recent report. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that those who shared the report had mischaracterised it. “This is the game they play,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the summit, NATO member states announced their joint intention to raise defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product. The Trump administration highlighted this as a significant foreign policy achievement.