Donald Trump responds to claim trucks spotted 'removing uranium' before US strikes on Iran

Donald Trump (Image: Getty)

Donald Trump has denied suggestions that trucks moved loads of highly enriched uranium from a key Iranian nuclear site before huge strikes by US forces. Satellite imagery taken days before the attacks showed a line of vehicles outside an entrance to the Fordow facility, leading to claims by some experts that Iran could have moved the uranium prior to the US dropping several bunker-buster bombs.

The American President took to to social media to dispel the claims. He said: "The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!"

Trucks were seen lined up outside the Fordow facility on June 19 — days before the US strikes (Image: Getty)

In a Pentagon news briefing, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also said he was "not aware" of any intelligence suggesting the enriched uranium had been moved.

B-2 stealth bombers dropped six 30,000lb GBU-57 bombs on each of the two shafts of the Fordow facility, which is built deep underground below a mountain.

Mr Trump claimed US strikes had "obliterated" the secretive facility, as well as the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites.

Pete Hegseth defended the strikes and said the leaked assessments were "preliminary" (Image: Getty)

Appearing alongside Mr Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, said the US targeted the ventilation shafts at the Fordow facility as the entry point for the bombs.

He added that ahead of the strikes, Iran placed large concrete slabs on top of them to try to protect them.

Revealing further details of the attack, codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer, he said the first bomb was dropped on the shift to eliminate the concrete slab, with four more dropped at slightly different angles to take out various parts of the underground facility.

The sixth was a failsafe in case any of the others didn’t work, and it also was dropped, General Caine said.

During the Pentagon briefing with the media, Mr Hegseth also continued to defend the US strikes despite leaked initial intelligence assessments that suggested they had failed to destroy some key facilities.

The defence secretary criticised reporters for “breathlessly” focusing on that "preliminary" assessment and said such stories were just attempts to undermine Mr Trump.

He claimed the intelligence was “leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn’t successful”.

After the briefing, Mr Trump praised Mr Hegseth on his Truth Social platform, saying it was “one of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen!”