IDF says it destroyed secret underground site where Iran moved nuclear project after June war

Israeli Air Force jets on Tuesday destroyed a secret underground site on the outskirts of Tehran where Iran transferred much of its nuclear program after the war with Israel in June, the IDF said.

In a press conference, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin also said the military has dropped more munitions on Iran in the current, four-day-old US-Israeli bombing campaign than in the entire 12 days of June’s Operation Rising Lion.

Following that war, in which Israel and the US targeted Iranian nuclear sites, Iran “did not halt its military nuclear activity, and continued to develop the capabilities required for nuclear weapons, while transferring infrastructure to an underground site protected from aerial attack,” said Defrin.

At “Minzadehei,” the facility that housed the underground site, a group of nuclear scientists “worked secretly to develop capabilities required for nuclear weapons,” Defrin said. The IDF monitored the Iranian nuclear scientists’ activities and “located their new place of operation at this site, enabling a precise strike on the secret compound,” he added.

While Iran, whose leaders are sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies seeking nuclear arms, it has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.

The US and Israel on Saturday launched a surprise attack on Iran after a massive US military buildup in the region and repeated threats by US President Donald Trump to strike Iran, first over its bloody crackdown on anti-regime protesters last month and more recently over its nuclear program.

Iran has retaliated with deadly missile and drone strikes on Israel and US-allied Arab countries.

Since Saturday, the Israeli Air Force has dropped over 4,000 bombs on Iran, and fighter jets have carried out 1,600 sorties, Defrin said Tuesday.

“Today, we crossed the amount of munitions that the IDF dropped during the entire Operation Rising Lion,” in which Israel also dropped some 4,000 bombs on Iran, he said.

Israeli airstrikes have hit 300 Iranian missile launchers since the start of the current conflict, the IDF said in a separate statement Tuesday, adding that “the Air Force continues to launch continuous waves of strikes against the Iranian regime’s ballistic missile arrays and [air] defense systems.”

Israeli Air Force fighter jets and drones have been carrying out a “systematic, round-the-clock hunt” of Iran’s missile launchers and caches of ballistic missiles to reduce the rate of fire on Israel, the military said.