Israel and the United States prioritized degrading Iran's nuclear weaponization abilities during Operation Roaring Lion and Operation Epic Fury over targeting nuclear enrichment sites, according to an Institute for Science and International Security analysis of satellite imagery. The analysis said little new damage was done to Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities already destroyed in strikes during the 12-day war in June 2025. Instead, facilities and infrastructure related to the weaponization of enriched uranium, including development sites, were targeted.
Who Was Targeted
One target analyzed by the institute was the Min Zadai site, which it said is suspected to have played a key role in Iran's attempts to recover nuclear weapons capabilities after the June 2025 strikes. On March 3, the IDF announced strikes on the complex, describing it as a partially underground "nuclear headquarters" where nuclear scientists were developing key components for nuclear weapons systems. Reporting by the French newspaper Le Monde suggested the Min Zadai complex was involved in the metallurgy of nuclear weapons cores.
Another site was Taleghan 2, a highly fortified facility within Iran's Parchin military complex that has been used in Iran's nuclear weapons testing and development of advanced explosives. The pattern is hard to miss: the apparatus did not just hit enrichment infrastructure, but the places tied to the labor of weaponization, testing, and the technical work that turns state ambition into hardware.
The University System in the Crosshairs
Universities with connections to Iran's development of nuclear weapons were also targeted. Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, which the IDF directly tied to nuclear weaponization, and an adjacent laboratory-type building connected to the university by a footbridge were heavily damaged in strikes. The university-adjacent laboratory was built right next to the Mojdeh site, a nuclear site destroyed by Israeli strikes in June 2025.
Imam Hussein University, a key Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps university, was struck on March 10 for hosting an underground weapons research and development complex used by the IRGC for experimentation and testing related to ballistic missiles. The strikes reached into the institutional machinery that links military power, research, and weapons development, showing how the hierarchy of state force runs through campuses as well as bunkers.
What the Analysis Says
In addition to at least four sites specifically tied to nuclear weaponization by the IDF, the Institute for Science and International Security analysis identified three other targeted sites likely to have also been used in the development of nuclear weapons. The institute said the destruction of key weaponization sites likely significantly increased the time it would take for Iran to complete the production of nuclear weapons.
The satellite imagery analysis frames the strikes as a campaign against the infrastructure of nuclear weaponization rather than enrichment alone. That distinction matters because the targets were not abstract symbols; they were facilities, laboratories, and university-linked sites where state power, military research, and technical expertise were concentrated and then smashed by another state’s air power.
The result, according to the institute, is a longer timeline for Iran's production of nuclear weapons. The facts on the ground, as described in the analysis, are a reminder that when rival states settle scores through bombardment, the people and institutions caught underneath the machinery are the ones left to absorb the damage.