Strikes on Iran set back its nuclear program only several months, sources say

The initial assessment would appear to contradict Trump and Netanyahu's claims that Iran's nuclear capabilities were "obliterated" by the U.S. attack.
WASHINGTON — An initial assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency concludes that the U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites over the weekend were not as effective as President Donald Trump said and that they set the country's nuclear program back by only three to six months, according to three people with knowledge of the report.
“We were assuming that the damage was going to be much more significant than this assessment is finding,” said one of the three sources. “This assessment is already finding that these core pieces are still intact. That’s a bad sign for the overall program.”
CNN first reported the assessment’s conclusions.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the reporting on the intelligence assessment was inaccurate.
“This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” she said in a statement. “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program.”
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