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US Strikes Isfahan with Bunker-Buster Bombs Targeting Iranian Nuclear Sites

US Strikes Isfahan with Bunker-Buster Bombs Targeting Iranian Nuclear Sites
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The United States carried out a major overnight strike on the central Iranian city of Isfahan, using 2,000‑pound “bunker‑buster” bombs against what U.S. officials described as ammunition depots and nuclear‑linked facilities, sending a massive fireball into the sky and deepening a month‑long air war with Iran dailysabah +1. Iranian authorities said earlier waves of strikes on the city had already killed at least 26 people, more than half of them women and children, in residential areas aljazeera.

The latest explosions hit a city that hosts key elements of Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure and has been a repeated target since the U.S.–Israeli campaign began in late February. U.S. Central Command released strike footage on social media, saying American forces were working to “eliminate the Iranian regime’s ability to project power in meaningful ways outside of Iran’s borders,” while President Donald Trump circulated uncensored video of the blasts on his own platforms dailysabah +1. Tehran, which has reported rising civilian casualties, vowed further retaliation across the region.

What Was Hit in Isfahan — And With What Weapons?

Reports from U.S. and regional outlets said the latest operation focused on large ammunition depots and arsenals around Isfahan, with The Wall Street Journal cited as saying the U.S. used 2,000‑pound class penetrator munitions designed to punch through hardened structures before detonating economictimes +1. Those “bunker‑buster” bombs, weighing roughly 900 kg each, are intended for deeply buried or reinforced targets and have been used previously against Iranian nuclear infrastructure at sites such as Fordow and Natanz nytimes +1.

Isfahan’s strategic importance stems from its mix of industrial plants, university and defense‑linked laboratories, and facilities long associated by Western governments with uranium work and advanced weapons programs dailysabah +1. Satellite imagery reviewed by international media showed extensive damage to industrial sites and campuses after earlier strikes, including hits on Isfahan University and the Isfahan University of Technology this month, though those attacks caused structural damage but no casualties, according to local reports english +2. Iranian outlets, by contrast, have highlighted damage to civilian factories and neighborhoods, including a March 14 strike on a heater and refrigerator plant that local authorities said killed at least 15 workers al-monitor.

Rising Civilian Toll and a Expanding Regional Front

While Washington and Jerusalem have framed the strikes as a campaign to degrade Iran’s military reach and curtail its nuclear ambitions, Iranian officials and humanitarian groups have pointed to a mounting civilian toll across multiple provinces. The Isfahan governor’s office, via semi‑official Fars news agency, said 26 people — including seven women and seven children — were killed in one recent attack on a residential area aljazeera. Reuters cited Red Cross figures of more than 1,900 people killed and at least 20,000 injured in Iran since the start of U.S.–Israeli strikes, even before the latest Isfahan bombardment aljazeera.

Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks that have rippled across the Gulf. In the hours around the latest Isfahan strike, an Iranian drone hit a fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker off Dubai, igniting a fire that Emirati authorities later said was contained dailysabah +1. Regional governments have reported repeated attempts to intercept missiles and drones, while global oil benchmarks climbed to about $106 a barrel, a rise of more than 45% since the war began, as traders weighed the risk to Gulf energy infrastructure and shipping lanes dailysabah +1.

The Bigger Picture

The attack on Isfahan marked both a technological show of force, through the use of heavy bunker‑buster bombs against hardened targets, and a political signal that Washington intends to sustain pressure on Iran’s core military and nuclear assets even as civilian casualties grow and oil markets roil. With Tehran vowing that U.S. forces across the Middle East are now “legitimate targets” and Western allies simultaneously urging both continued deterrence and restraint, the conflict appeared locked in a cycle of strike and counterstrike whose next phase may hinge less on battlefield capabilities than on whether any of the major players are prepared to accept the political cost of de‑escalation aljazeera +1.