Story perspectives

Trump Threatens Strike on Iran’s Deep Underground Pickaxe Site

7/14/2026

Summary

Story summary

U.S. President Donald Trump warned the United States will target Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain site.
Pickaxe Mountain is an underground complex built to survive the powerful U.S. bunker-buster bombs.
U.S. Central Command reported a night of strikes, with explosions near Bandar Abbas and Kish Island.
Iran says the site is a centrifuge plant, noting UN inspectors lack full access.
Weapons experts doubt the GBU-57 can breach the site’s 600-metre granite depth.

History

Historical Context

Israel’s 1981 Operation Opera, in which eight F-16s and six F-15s destroyed Iraq’s Osirak reactor in a 1-minute-20-second raid ordered by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, drew UN condemnation yet delayed Iraq’s nuclear progress. President Donald Trump’s 2020 threat to strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain centrifuge plant revives the same pre-emptive logic, highlighting why diplomatic frameworks such as the 2015 JCPOA remain crucial.

1 of 2

Story summary

U.S. President Donald Trump warned the United States will target Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain site.
Pickaxe Mountain is an underground complex built to survive the powerful U.S. bunker-buster bombs.
U.S. Central Command reported a night of strikes, with explosions near Bandar Abbas and Kish Island.
Iran says the site is a centrifuge plant, noting UN inspectors lack full access.
Weapons experts doubt the GBU-57 can breach the site’s 600-metre granite depth.

1 / 2