The three sites hit by U.S. bombs Saturday were not only to take out Iran's nuclear enrichment abilities but to take out the middle pieces of where it would "process a pit, that nuclear material" into an explosive device, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Newsmax on Saturday.
"These are some of the hardened sites where they suspect that Iranian uranium enrichment and weapons research," he said. "This is key – uranium research and uranium enrichment, and weapons research were going on."
The "pit," he explained, is what is encased in an explosive outer core, which is then put into a device mounted in a gravity bomb.
And now, there must be a battle assessment to determine if any nuclear materials leaked, if anything happened to the material, and how much of the facilities were destroyed.
"Are there elements of the site still functional that can continue the research? And this would indicate then whatever the assessment is, do we need additional strikes?" Shaffer said.
Further, the U.S. and Israel will monitor Iranian leadership for their response.
"It's like when you put your finger into an anthill," he said."We want to see where the ants all scramble, what they look for, because one of the things that bad guys always do is try to figure out what they have left. So, that will tell you where other sites may be or what material was left over."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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