Israel and US strike Iran nuclear sites for first time in war

Israel and the United States struck the Khondab Heavy Water Complex near Arak and the Ardakan Uranium Concentration Plant in Yazd province on March 27, 2026, the first strikes on Iran's nuclear development infrastructure since the war began February 28, per . More than 50 Israeli Air Force jets conducted simultaneous strikes across the two sites. U.S. Central Command confirmed American participation.

The Khondab facility, located about 250 kilometers southwest of Tehran in Markazi province, houses Iran's IR-40 heavy water research reactor. The reactor can produce plutonium as a byproduct of normal operation. Plutonium, like highly enriched uranium, can be used to build a nuclear weapon. The Ardakan plant processes uranium ore from the nearby Saghand mine into yellowcake, a raw uranium powder that is the first step in the nuclear fuel cycle.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran confirmed on March 27 that a separate projectile struck a structure 350 meters from the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant on the Persian Gulf coast. The IAEA confirmed the impact site through satellite imagery analysis, per . Director General RGRafael Grossi said the strike constituted a close call that risked a major radiological accident.

Bushehr is Iran's only operational nuclear power plant and produces electricity for the national grid. Russia built and still maintains the plant under a formal agreement. Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, warned that repeated strikes near Bushehr posed growing nuclear safety risks. A strike that directly hit the reactor could release radioactive material over a wide area of the Persian Gulf.

Iran's Foreign Minister AAAbbas Araghchi said the March 27 strikes directly contradicted President Trump's 10-day diplomatic extension, which Trump announced on March 26 and which paused U.S. attacks on Iranian power plants through April 6, 2026. Trump said at the time that "talks are ongoing and going very well." Araghchi said there were no direct talks and that the strikes proved the diplomatic extension was not a genuine pause, per .

The IRGC Aerospace Force commander posted on X after the March 27 strikes that Iran's retaliation would "no longer be an eye for an eye." That phrasing marked a departure from Iran's prior proportional response posture, implying Iran would respond at a scale larger than any individual strike it had suffered.

The distinction between nuclear development infrastructure and civilian nuclear power is central to the military objectives. The Khondab reactor was designed to produce heavy water and could generate weapons-grade plutonium as a byproduct. The Ardakan plant produces yellowcake, the first step in converting uranium ore into the form needed for enrichment. Targeting these sites aims to destroy Iran's capacity to produce nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material, rather than merely degrading its current military forces, per .

The strikes came after CENTCOM reported on March 25 that U.S. and Israeli forces had destroyed approximately two-thirds of Iran's arms manufacturing facilities over the first 28 days of the war. The war entered its 29th day on March 28.

No congressional authorization for U.S. participation in strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities has been passed. President Trump launched the war on February 28 using presidential authority and notified Congress under the War Powers Resolution, which requires notification within 48 hours of introducing forces into hostilities. The War Powers Resolution also requires Congress to authorize continued military action after 60 days, or the president must withdraw forces. The 60-day clock runs out around April 29, 2026, per .

Senate Democrats introduced a resolution on March 17 to invoke the War Powers Resolution and require a congressional vote on the Iran war. The resolution failed to advance in the Republican-controlled Senate. No Republican senator has publicly demanded a formal authorization of force vote before the April 29 deadline.

The Iran war has killed more than 1,750 people in Iran, including at least 217 children, according to live casualty tracker through March 28. Iran has not released official casualty figures. The war began February 28, 2026, when Israel and the United States launched coordinated strikes on Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure. Iran's Strait of Hormuz blockade began the same day, disrupting approximately 20 percent of global oil trade.

The nuclear strikes mark a new phase of the conflict. Prior strikes focused on military installations, missile production, and political targets including the Assembly of Experts. The March 27 strikes explicitly targeted the nuclear development pipeline, from yellowcake production at Ardakan to plutonium production capacity at Khondab.

Russia and China both condemned the March 27 nuclear strikes. Russian Foreign Minister SLSergei Lavrov called the strikes a dangerous escalation that risked a nuclear catastrophe. Rosatom warned of growing nuclear risk after the Bushehr near-miss. China's Foreign Ministry said the strikes violated international law and demanded an immediate ceasefire, per .

The United States and Israel did not seek United Nations Security Council authorization before the strikes. Russia and China, both permanent Security Council members, have blocked all council resolutions condemning the war. The legal framework for the strikes relies on Israel's Article 51 right of self-defense under the UN Charter and U.S. assistance to an ally under customary international law.

The IAEA has been unable to conduct inspections at Khondab or Ardakan since the war began February 28. Iran suspended IAEA inspector access on February 28 as one of its first actions after the war started. Grossi said the IAEA can't confirm the current status of nuclear material at either facility and can't verify whether any radioactive material was released during the March 27 strikes, per .

Prior to the war, the IAEA had documented that Iran was enriching uranium to 60 percent purity at Fordow and Natanz, just below the 90 percent threshold considered weapons-grade. The IAEA's last inspection report before the war noted that Iran had accumulated enough enriched uranium, if further enriched to 90 percent, for several nuclear weapons.