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The United States decisively entered into conflict with Iran on Saturday after President Donald Trump ordered US warplanes to drop massive bombs on three nuclear sites inside the country, thrusting him squarely into an escalating Middle East conflict even as he holds out hope the matter can be resolved diplomatically.
In social media posts and during a late-night address from the White House, Trump described the bombings as entirely successful and warned Iran against retaliation.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” Trump said during his four-minute speech from the White House Cross Hall.
He described the mission as a “spectacular military success” and called on Iran to immediately return to diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. He said the sites had been “totally obliterated.”
