The U.S. is on "high alert" for any retaliation from Tehran after the nationbombed three Iran nuclear sites, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said Sunday. "Our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which would be an incredibly poor choice. We will defend ourselves. The safety of our service members and civilians remains our highest priority," Caine said at a Pentagon briefing. Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, has elevated force protection measures in the region, Caine said, "especially in Iraq, Syria and the Gulf." There are about 40,000 U.S. troops in the region. Defense SecretaryPete Hegsethsaid Iran's nuclear ambitions "have been obliterated" in the Saturday night strike. "The order we received from our commander in chief was focused, it was powerful, and it was clear. We devastated the Iranian nuclear program," Hegseth said. Hegseth said the USA's B-2 stealth bombers, in a mission called Operation Midnight Hammer, "went in and out ... without the world knowing at all. In that way it was historic." President Donald Trump, in a live address at the White House on Saturday, said more strikes could come. "Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace," he said. "If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier." The U.N. Security Council was also set to meet later Sunday over the bombings, officials said. The leaders of the UK, France and Germany said in a joint statement Sunday that they would continue their diplomatic efforts to try and defuse tensions and ensure conflict does not spread further. They urged Iran not to take any actions that would further destabilize the region and called for the country to negotiate to address concerns with the nuclear program. "We have consistently been clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and can no longer pose a threat to regional security," the government heads of the three countries said. The U.S. used more than a dozen multi-million-dollar,30,000-pound "bunker busters"tobomb Iranian nuclear facilitiesin the strike, marking the weapon's first operational use, according to the Pentagon. U.S. bomber planes dropped 14 of the massive bombs on three of Iran's nuclear facilities, Caine told reporters. The bombs used in the strikes, calledMassive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, weigh 30,000 pounds each and cost millions to produce. MOPs, also known as the Guided Bomb Unit, or GBU-57, areGPS-guided weapons designedto burrow deep into underground targets, like fortified tunnels or bunkers. The bombs are about 20 feet long and span 6 feet at their widest point. While Israel has bunker-busters a fraction of its weight, only the MOP has the capability to destroy or severely damage Iran's nuclear facilities,experts previously told USA TODAY. Read more:How much did the 30,000-pound bunker-busters cost? The Iranian parliament backed a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz following the U.S. strikes on the country, but the final decision will rest with Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Iran's Press TV reported Sunday. About 20% of global oil and gas flow through the strait, which lies between Oman and Iran, and its closure could mean rising fuel prices for American consumers. The strait is 21 miles at its narrowest point, and the shipping lane is 2 miles wide in either direction. Asked whether Tehran would close Hormuz, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi didn't give a straight answer, saying: "A variety of options are available to Iran." Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized any decision to block the narrow channel between Iran and Oman. "That would be a suicidal move on their part, because I think the whole world would come against them if they did that," Rubio said in an interview with CBS. −Savannah Kuchar and Reuters Trump's ordered airstrikes have attracted criticism from both sides of the political aisle, and some lawmakers are charging that the president did not have the authority to call for the attack. "Our framers did not believe in the old way that a king could order a nation to war," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. "Instead, the framers gave the power to Congress so we would have a debate in front of all the American public whose sons' and daughters' lives could potentially be at risk." The Constitution puts the power to declare war in Congress' hands, andthe War Powers Resolutionof 1973 mandates that the president notifies Congress within 48 hours of military action. The law also limits the deployment of armed forces beyond 90 days, in the absence of a formal declaration of war. Kaine has introduced a resolution in the Senate seeking to block Trump's actions in Iran. In the House, Reps. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, have filed a similar measure based on the War Powers Act. −Savannah Kuchar Vice PresidentJD Vanceargued in interviews Sunday that the U.S. is not entering an open-ended conflict in the Middle East. "We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program." Vance told NBC's Kristen Welker. "We do not want war with Iran," Vance added while on Meet The Press. "We actually want peace. But we want peace in the context of them not having a nuclear weapons program." Separately, on ABC, Vance described the strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran as "targeted." The Pentagon's attack on Iran's nuclear facility employed its most powerful bunker-buster bomb as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from submarines, according to Pentagon officials. Pentagon planners coordinated the attack with Israel to enter Iran's airspace, said the official who had been briefed on the mission but was not authorized to speak publicly. B-2 bombers dropped GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs, the first time they have been used in combat. −Savannah Kuchar and Francesca Chambers The U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, called Operation Midnight Hammer, differs in character, scope and destructive power from those that Trump ordered in his first administration. Those missions included a missile attack in Syria to punish Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons, the raid to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the drone that killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian who led its Quds force. The Iranian attacks on Saturday involved some of the most sophisticated weapons in the Pentagon's arsenal and tapped into its commands overseeing operations from the Middle East to outer space, Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Sunday. It took weeks to plan the Saturday attack, which involved 125 warplanes − including nearly one-third of its most sophisticated stealth bomber fleet – and submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. The goal of the U.S. strikes on Iran was not to prompt aregime change, Hegseth said during the news briefing Sunday morning. "This mission was not, has not been about regime change," Hegseth said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuhasn't denied that an Iran regime change is part of Israel's military objectives, however. "It could certainly be the result because the Iran regime is very weak," Netanyahu said in an interview on Fox News' "Special Report With Bret Baier" a week ago. "I think it's basically left with two things. Its plans to have atomic bombs and ballistic missiles. That's basically what Iran has. They certainly don't have the people. Eighty percent of the people would throw these theological thugs out." The head of an international agency that encourages the peaceful use of nuclear technology said Sunday that the U.S. decision to bomb Iran has completely reset what was once slowly simmering tensions between Iran and Israel. "This changes the whole dynamic," Rafel Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview on CNN. Grossi said Iran's current governmental regime, which has been in place since 1979, has been one of the few stabilizing forces in an otherwise "very very unstable" international scene." "I think the unraveling of the nonproliferation regime would be a tremendously serious consequence," he said. "I think that now we need to try to go back to the negotiating table as soon as possible." −Erin Mansfield The president of Israel said Sunday morning that the United States is acting in its own interests and declined to say whether Israel would need additional resources. "We are not dragging America into a war, and we are leaving aid to the decision of the president of the United States and to the team," Isaac Herzog said in an interview on CNN. Herzog said the U.S. decision to bomb Iran was made "because the Iranian nuclear program was (a) clear and present danger to the security interests of the free world, and the United States is the leader of the free world." −Erin Mansfield Trump and his top defense official, Hegseth, say U.S. bombers completely "obliterated" Iran's three major nuclear complexes at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. That may turn out to be the case, though there has so far been no independent assessment of that assertion from nuclear watchdogs, international officials or others with direct information of the situation on the ground. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the main window for how the world assesses the scale and evolution of Iran's nuclear program, has not commented. All wars are information wars, as well as ones fought with conventional weapons. One example: Iran's IRIB state broadcaster claimed that its stockpiles of enriched uranium were "evacuated" from all threes sites prior to the U.S. strikes, another assertion that has not been independently verified. Hegseth lauded the U.S. strikes on Iran as an "incredible and overwhelming success." The strikes did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people, Hegseth said. Trump "seeks peace, and Iran should take that path," Hegseth said. He noted that fighter pilots and sailors aboard ships and submarines joined the attack. Caine said the U.S. was "currently unaware of any shots fired at the U.S. strike package on the way in." The three nuclear targets were struck from 6:40 p.m. to 7:10 p.m. ET, Caine said. He said the U.S. was also unaware of any shots fired on the way out of Iran. All three nuclear sites "sustained extremely severe damage and destruction," initial assessments indicate, Caine said. In a weekly prayer on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV, the Catholic Church's first pope from the United States, called for diplomacy and peace efforts, not "violence and bloody conflicts," shortly after the U.S.' military action against Iran. "Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss," Leo said. "In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent," he said. Iranians have been intermittently cut off from the world since the start of Israel's air war on its military and nuclear sites more than a week ago, now joined by the United States. Iran's government has imposed a near countrywide internet blackout in recent days, saying it was necessary to prevent Israeli cyberattacks and for unspecified security reasons, though some residents have reported the shutdown's efficacy has varied and sometimes they were able to get online. There have also been reported disruptions to cellphone text messages in Iran. On Sunday, NetBlocks, an organization that monitors global Internet access, reported that connectivity in Iran "again collapsed" in the hours before the U.S. strikes. NetBlocks also reported that Trump's Truth Social platform was "experiencing international outages for many users," a scenario it said was not related to "country-level Internet disruptions or filtering." The United Nations' nuclear watchdog will hold an emergency meeting in Vienna on Monday following the U.S. attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. The International Atomic Energy Agency, created in 1957 amid growing concern over nuclear weapons, called for an end to "hostilities" so that it can continue inspections in Iran. "In view of the increasingly serious situation in terms of nuclear safety and security, the Board of Governors will meet in an extraordinary session tomorrow, which I will address," Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. The sites targeted by the U.S. strikes contained nuclear material in the form of uranium enriched to different levels, the IAEA said, according to its most recent information before Israel's strikes on Iran on June 13. The material "may cause radioactive and chemical contamination within the facilities that were hit," the IAEA said. Grossi said no health impacts outside the targeted sites are expected after the U.S. strikes. "I have repeatedly stated that nuclear facilities should never be attacked," Grossi said. Israelhailed the United States' decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear sitesas an action that would "deny the world's most dangerous regime the world's most dangerous weapons." Elsewhere around the world the reaction was far more constrained. The United Nations and some leaders from Britain to Mexico called for swift de-escalation while other longtime U.S. adversaries such as Cuba and Venezuela were deeply critical of the attacks. "There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control − with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region and the world," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. Guterres said he was "gravely alarmed" by the use of U.S. force on Iran. 'Perilous hour':World reacts after US bombs Iranian nuclear sites Russia and China on Sunday condemned the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, the countries' foreign ministries said. "The irresponsible decision to subject the territory of a sovereign state to missile and bomb attacks, whatever the arguments it may be presented with, flagrantly violates international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council," the Russian foreign ministry said in its statement. "We call for an end to aggression and for increased efforts to create conditions for returning the situation to a political and diplomatic track." Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, launching a drawn-out conflict that is ongoing over three years later. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin,recently suggestedthat the "whole of Ukraine" belongs to his country, even though Russia only controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory. China's foreign ministry said the move violates the United Nations Charter and would worsen tensions in the Middle East. The ministry urged an end to attacks for all parties to the conflict, particularly Israel. Trump ordered the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, effectively joining a war that Israel started on June 13 when it started bombing Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. One of the U.S. targets was Fordow, a uranium enrichment facility hidden deep inside a remote mountain in the desert. Nuclear sites at Natanz and Isfahan were also struck. Israel said it helped the U.S. coordinate and plan the strikes. Trump said all three sites were "totally obliterated" but an independent assessment has not yet been carried out. The International Atomic Energy Agency − the United Nation's nuclear watchdog − released a statement saying that so far it had not detected an increase in "off-site radiation levels," one of the feared consequences of the strikes. Iran's next move is being closely watched. The country has already ramped up its rhetoric. "Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. Ahead of the U.S. strikes, Tehran signaled that if the Pentagon were to join Israel's war U.S. military bases and Navy ships in the region could be attacked. Iran has a large arsenal of drones and ballistic missiles. It has been using these on Israel for days. It launched a fresh wave of missiles toward Israel hours after the U.S. bombing started. Iran might even opt for a diplomatic route, which Trump was encouraging prior to authorizing the U.S. attack. Contributing: Reuters This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Iran-US live updates: US on alert for retaliation after nuke strike
