A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed
off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings,
according to officials familiar with the findings.
The early findings conclude that the strikes over the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program by
only a few months, the officials said.
Before the attack, U.S. intelligence agencies had said that if Iran tried to rush to making a bomb,
it would take about three months. After the U.S. bombing run and days of attacks by the Israeli
Air Force, the report by the Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that the program was delayed
less than six months.
Former officials said that any rushed effort by Iran to get a bomb would be to develop a relatively
small and crude device. A miniaturized warhead would be far more difficult to produce, and
it is not clear how much damage to that more advanced research has taken place.
NYT
- 86 47 -
| 
