Israel attacks Iran's nuclear program. The Arak reactor and the Ardakan plant were bombed

The Israeli army said on Friday it bombed a heavy water reactor in the central Iranian city of Arak and a uranium processing plant in the city of Ardakan. Iranian media confirmed the attacks. The Israeli military emphasized that these were important plants in Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The air force attacked “key infrastructure used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons,” the Israeli army said, informing about the raid on the Arak plant.

It added that the facility was still under construction and had previously been attacked by Israel in June 2025 during a 12-day campaign of Israeli and American strikes against Iran.

“Many attempts were observed by the Iranian terrorist regime to rebuild this facility, which is why the Israeli military attacked this site again,” the armed forces added in a statement.

The Israeli army earlier issued a warning to civilians, asking them to leave the area around the plant. Iranian authorities present the Arak facility as a research reactor.

There is a uranium processing plant in Ardakan, where the so-called yellow cake. It is a uranium concentrate that is later refined and enriched to become nuclear fuel.

The Israeli military emphasized that this is the only such plant in Iran, which is a very important element of the “nuclear weapons program implemented by the regime.”

Iran's state-run news agency IRNA earlier reported the airstrikes on both facilities, attributing them to US-Israeli forces.

The West has long suspected Iran of working on developing nuclear weapons. The regime in Tehran regularly denies and emphasizes that its nuclear program has only civilian uses.

However, Iran has accumulated 440 kg of uranium enriched to 60 percent. This concentration goes beyond civilian needs, and after a relatively short process of further enrichment, the material can be used to produce several atomic bombs.

The US and Israel emphasize that destroying the Iranian nuclear program is one of the goals of the attack on this country launched on February 28. (PAP)

adj/ mal/