The United States and Israel carried out fresh strikes on Iran’s Natanz uranium-enrichment facility Saturday morning. The facility is one of the most symbolically and strategically significant sites in Tehran’s nuclear programme. Iran’s Tasnim news agency first reported the attack and the country’s atomic energy organisation confirmed it later, stating that “the Natanz enrichment complex was targeted this morning” in what it called “criminal attacks by the United States and the usurping Zionist regime”.
The Kan public broadcaster, citing unspecified sources, reported that the US used “bunker buster” bombs to target the site.
Authorities moved quickly to contain public alarm, announcing that “no leakage of radioactive materials” had been reported and that residents near the facility faced no immediate danger.
The strike is the latest escalation in a conflict that erupted on February 28 with coordinated US-Israeli bombardments and has now stretched into its third week. Natanz was also heavily targeted during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025. At the time, the US dropped over a dozen GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on the Fordo and Natanz underground nuclear facilities, according to a Times of Israel report.
Why Natanz keeps getting hit
Natanz is not simply one facility among many. The site is carved deep into Iran’s mountainous interior and is protected beneath layers of rock. It was engineered to house thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges while withstanding aerial assault. That hardened, underground design made it a notoriously difficult target; one requiring specialised munitions and meticulous military planning to penetrate effectively.
Its significance extends beyond engineering. The enrichment process at Natanz serves dual purposes of generating fuel for civilian energy needs while simultaneously producing material that, if refined further, could yield weapons-grade uranium.
That ambiguity has kept Natanz at the centre of international non-proliferation anxiety for decades and embedded it in US military contingency planning — including strategies involving massive troop deployments and, more recently, efforts to track and potentially extract near-bomb-grade uranium stockpiles.
Region on the edge
The June strikes had already targeted three Iranian nuclear sites — Natanz, Fordow and Esfahan — effectively ending the International Atomic Energy Agency’s extensive monitoring programme. Since then, Tehran has signalled it may take independent steps to “safeguard” nuclear materials, a phrase that has deepened uncertainty about how much of the programme remains intact and how far it has progressed.
The conflict’s scope has grown sharply since Israel struck Iran’s South Pars gas field, triggering retaliatory actions that pulled Gulf states deeper into the crisis.