By DAVID RISING, Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — In inserting itself into Israel’s war against Iran, Washington unleashed its massive “bunker-buster” bombs on Iran’s Fordo fuel enrichment plant.

Those bombs were widely seen as the best chance of damaging or destroying Fordo, built deep into a mountain and untouched during Israel’s weeklong offensive. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the operation before an official briefing, confirmed their use in Sunday’s attack.

The U.S. is the only military capable of dropping the weapons, and the movement of B2 stealth bombers toward Asia on Saturday had signaled possible activity by the U.S. Israeli leaders had made no secret of their hopes that President Donald Trump would join their week-old war against Iran, though they had also suggested they had backup plans for destroying the site.

It remained unclear early Sunday how much damage had been inflicted upon Fordo. The mission could have wide-ranging ramifications, including jeopardizing any chance of Iran engaging in Trump’s desired talks on its nuclear program and dragging the U.S. into another Mideast war.

Here’s a closer look.

What is the bunker-buster bomb?

“Bunker buster” is a broad term used to describe bombs that are designed to penetrate deep below the surface before exploding. In this case, it refers to the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb in the American arsenal. The roughly 30,000 pound precision-guided bomb is designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels, according to the U.S. Air Force.

FILE – In this photo released by the U.S. Air Force on May 2, 2023, airmen look at a GBU-57, or the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri.(U.S. Air Force via AP, File)

It’s believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast. It was not immediately known how many were used in the Sunday morning strike.

The bomb carries a conventional warhead, but the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility. However, Israeli strikes at another Iranian nuclear site, Natanz, on a centrifuge site have caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area, the IAEA has said. U.S. warplanes also hit Natanz.

How tough a target is Fordo?

Fordo is Iran’s second nuclear enrichment facility after Natanz, its main facility, which already has been targeted by Israeli airstrikes. The IAEA says it believes those strikes have had “direct impacts” on the facility’s underground centrifuge halls.

Fordo is smaller than Natanz, and is built into the side of a mountain near the city of Qom, about 60 miles southwest of Tehran. Construction is believed to have started around 2006 and it became first operational in 2009 — the same year Tehran publicly acknowledged its existence.

FILE – This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the Fordo enrichment facility in Iran on April 1, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP, File)

In addition to being an estimated 260 feet under rock and soil, the site is reportedly protected by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile systems. Those air defenses, however, likely have already been struck in the Israeli campaign, which claims to have knocked out most of Iran’s air defenses.

Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the goal of attacking Iran was to eliminate its missile and nuclear program, which he described as an existential threat to Israel, and officials have said Fordo was part of that plan.

“This entire operation … really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordo,” Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., told Fox News.

Why does the U.S. need to be involved?

In theory, the GBU-57 A/B could be dropped by any bomber capable of carrying the weight, but at the moment the U.S. has only configured and programed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver the bomb, according to the Air Force.

The B-2 is only flown by the Air Force, and is produced by Northrop Grumman.

FILE – In this Oct. 25, 2015, file photo, a U.S. Air Force B2 Spirit stealth bomber performs a flyover at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala.(AP Photo/Mark Almond, File)

According to the manufacturer, the B-2 can carry a payload of 40,000 pounds but the U.S. Air Force has said it has successfully tested the B-2 loaded with two GBU-57 A/B bunker busters — a total weight of some 60,000 pounds.

The strategic long-range heavy bomber has a range of about 7,000 miles without refueling and 11,500 miles with one refueling, and can reach any point in the world within hours, according to Northrop Grumman.

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Trump was noncommittal

Whether the U.S. would get involved had been unclear in recent days.

At the G7 meeting in Canada, Trump was asked what it would take for Washington to become involved militarily and he said: “I don’t want to talk about that.”

Then on Thursday, Trump said he would decide within “two weeks” whether to get involved to give another chance to the possibility of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. In the end, it took just two days to decide.

Lolita C. Baldor contributed from Narragansett, Rhode Island.

WASHINGTON  — A transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech on U.S. airstrikes on Iran on Saturday as transcribed by The Associated Press:

“Thank you very much.

“A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive, precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime. Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.

“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.

“Tonight, 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. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. Future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.

“For 40 years, Iran has been saying. Death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over 1,000 people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East, and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular. So many were killed by their general, Qassim Soleimani. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.

“I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight, and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.

“Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that’s so. I also want to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine, spectacular general, and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack.

“With all of that being said, this cannot continue. There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight. Not even close. There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.

“Tomorrow, General Caine, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will have a press conference at 8 a.m. at the Pentagon. And I want to just thank everybody. And, in particular, God. I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.”

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With 1.2 seconds left in the third quarter Saturday night, Karlie Samuelson grabbed a defensive rebound and passed to Natisha Hiedeman, who quickly found Diamond Miler for a driving layup and a 57-54 lead as the clock hit triple zeroes.

The play added even more momentum to the shorthanded Lynx, who pulled away to beat Los Angeles 82-66 at Target Center and improve to a WNBA-best 12-1.

Minnesota outscored the Sparks 48-31 in the second half, including 25-12 in the fourth quarter. The Lynx shot 64.3% (9 for 14) in the final frame, including 5 of 8 from deep, while limiting the Sparks to 26.3% (5 for 19).

Kayla McBride dominated down the stretch, scoring 15 of her game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter (she played just 5:48 of the 10 minutes), including four of her five makes from deep, much to the delight of the 8,777 in attendance for Pride Night.

Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride (21) plays against the Las Vegas Aces during a WNBA basketball game Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

“This is Mac, this is what she does. She knows this kind of game is just around the corner. Stick with it,” said Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve

A top outside shooter, McBride was 5 for 22 in her previous two games, including missing 12 shots from outside the arc, but it’s widely accepted that to get out of a slump, a shooter’s got to shoot.

McBride scored a 3-pointer followed by a three-point play 36 seconds later for a 66-59 Lynx lead. A jumper by Courtney Williams pushed the lead to nine midway through the fourth quarter.

Los Angeles scored inside, but Alanna Smith made a trey at the other end. After a Sparks miss, McBride swished home a triple. “McBuckets” drained two more from outside the line after another Los Angeles bucket, and the lead became 17.

Williams finished with 18 points and six assists.

Lynx star Napheesa Collier missed the contest after leaving Tuesday’s win with lower back soreness. The team had no update for a potential return.

That gave Maria Kliundikova her first career start. The 6-foot-4 forward, who signed with Minnesota on June 6 after being waived by Los Angeles on May 15, was an inside presence all night finishing with 12 points, eight rebounds and a couple of blocks.

“I believe that Masha was pretty uptight going into the game. … She was still earning plays in today’s shootaround, and we were still on the fly trying to teach her stuff,” Reeve said.

Alanna Smith, whom Reeve said has been playing at “a high level” battled foul trouble but was strong in the fourth quarter, grabbing four of her eight rebounds and blocking a shot.

With reminders from a week ago still fresh, Reeve said a key for the Lynx would be keeping Los Angeles (4-10) out of the paint.

They did better than a week ago against the Sparks, but Los Angeles still had a 32-24 advantage. However, it was 22-8 at the half when the Lynx trailed 35-34.

Minnesota beat Los Angeles 101-78 last Saturday despite the Sparks having a 50-30 advantage in close.

The Lynx played without their top two rebounders.

Collier leads the team in points (24.4) and rebounds (8.5) and is second in assists (3.6). Forward Jessica Shepard, a strong inside presence with seven boards per game, missed her fourth straight game while competing for Slovenia in the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025. She’s expected back soon.

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By AAMER MADHANI and JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump expressed certainty that his big gamble to directly assist the Israelis delivered a knockout blow to Iran’s nuclear program — even as many supporters and detractors alike were warning that U.S. military action could draw the U.S. into an expansive regional conflict.

Trump, in brief remarks to the nation on Saturday evening from the White House, said the strikes “obliterated” three critical Iranian enrichment facilities and “the bully of the Middle East must now make peace.”

But it’s a risky moment for Trump, who has belittled his predecessors for tying up America in “stupid wars” and has repeatedly said he was determined to keep the U.S. and the Middle East from another expansive conflict.

“There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran,” Trump said. He added, “If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.”

The U.S. has struggled for decades to deal with the threat posed by Iran and its proxies.

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Iran-backed Hezbollah carried out the 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, the Beirut barracks bombing that same year and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing. And Iranian-backed militias were responsible for hundreds of Americans killed during the U.S. war in Iraq.

Trump took note of the long history of animus, and took credit for taking action.

“For 40 years, Iran has been saying death to America. Death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty,” Trump said. “I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.”

The possibility of U.S. involvement had been building for days. Still, the strikes, which were carried out early Sunday morning in Iran, carried an element of surprise.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday had said that Trump would decide whether to move forward with U.S. strikes on Iran within two weeks.

But on Saturday afternoon, commercial flight trackers identified multiple U.S. aerial refueling tankers on a path suggesting that they were accompanying aircraft from the Midwest to the Pacific, raising speculation that something was afoot. Those aircraft may have been a decoy — they were not part of the mission.

Trump returned from his New Jersey golf club just after 6 p.m., and had a previously scheduled evening meeting with his national security team. Less than two hours later, the president announced the strikes had been completed.

The White House posted photos of Trump in the White House Situation Room with top advisers as he monitored the strikes, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat.

The action by Trump immediately raised some concerns among U.S. lawmakers that the president had exceeded his authority.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., quickly posted on the social media site X: “This is not Constitutional.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on social media that Trump hit Iran without congressional authorization and lawmakers should pass a resolution he’s sponsoring with Massie “to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”

The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.

The U.S. military used 30,000-pound bunker busters on Fordo, while U.S. submarines also participated in the attacks, launching about 30 Tomahawk land attack missiles, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States in advance that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic would “result in irreparable damage for them.” And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”

Trump had initially hoped that the threat of force would motivate the country’s leaders to give up their nuclear program peacefully.

Ultimately, Trump made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran’s nuclear program, perhaps permanently.

The Israelis have said their offensive had already crippled Iran’s air defenses, allowing them already significantly to degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites.

Trump went forward with the strikes even as there is some murkiness about the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment on how close Iran was to building a nuclear weapon.

In March, Tulsi Gabbard, the national intelligence director, told lawmakers that it was not building a nuclear weapon and its supreme leader had not reauthorized the dormant program even though it had enriched uranium to higher levels.

Trump earlier this week dismissed the assessment, saying Gabbard was “wrong.” “I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters.

It’s unclear if the U.S. has developed fresh intelligence since Gabbard’s March testimony, but she insisted following the public pushback from Trump that the two of them were on the same page about Iran.

Trump’s decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.

The U.S. in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian attacks.

All the while, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a “second chance” for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said in a social media posting. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

The military showdown comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama administration-brokered agreement with Iran, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, the U.S. and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Trump decried the deal as giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.

Madhani reported from Morristown, N.J. AP writers Lolita C. Baldor, Chris Megerian and Seung Min Kim contributed reporting.