CNN analyst attests to destructive power of US strike on Iran

CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk said on Thursday that the bombing of Fordow nuclear facility in Iran by the United States was done "flawlessly," after the outlet published a report earlier this week bringing into question the efficacy of the attack.

McGurk said on air that after attending a briefing on the matter of the bombing that the operation "seemed to have worked flawlessly," because the bunker-busting bombs "went directly down to those three ventilated shafts, specifically as designed."

"I think from what I've seen, the 20,000 centrifuges you had about 17,000 in Natanz, about 3000 in Fordow, they are all completely destroyed," he later added. "I am very confident those centrifuges are gone. The Israelis destroyed the centrifuge manufacturing production facilities that we know of. Isfahan, which is the conversion facility, key part of the fuel site, will also appear to have been destroyed."

He then said that the bombing from the US was a "massive, catastrophic setback for Iran's program."

"We now know that operation that was developed over multiple administrations worked exactly as it was designed," he added, saying that Fordow has been "rendered inoperable" from the strikes.

CNN's previous report, which cited a report from a leaker inside the administration on a preliminary assessment which was rated as having “low confidence,” suggested that the strikes from the Trump administration had only set back the progress of Iran's nuclear program by months, and that the bombings were not successful.

On Thursday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, showed evidence that the strikes had "obliterated" Fordow, with Caine telling the press that all the bunker-busting bombs "went exactly where they were intended to go."