INTERNACIONAL
How bunker buster bombs work and how they could destroy Iran’s Fordow nuclear site
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As Israel’s battle to take out Iran’s nuclear capabilities continues, Iran’s most heavily-protected nuclear facility at Fordow, two hours from Tehran, remains intact.
Many military analysts believe that a two-ton precision bunker buster developed by and in sole possession of the U.S. is the only means of eliminating the Fordow site, which some claim may be capable of producing a nuclear warhead in as little as two to three days.
Jonathan Ruhe, Director of Foreign Policy for JINSA, spoke with Fox News Digital about bunker-busters, and how Israel or the U.S. might use them to eliminate the Fordow nuclear threat.
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Illustration showing how a GBU-57 Bunker Buster is deployed. (Fox News )
What is a bunker buster?
Ruhe said bunker busters are munitions designed to use the force of gravity to «penetrate through any mixture of earth, rock, and concrete before the bomb itself then explodes» underground. The explosion may either take out the target fully, or «collapse the structure» around the target «without necessarily obliterating it,» he explained.
Bunker busters come in multiple weight classes. Israel possesses 2,000- and 5,000-pound varieties. Only the U.S. possesses the 30,000-pound GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP).
Developed under President George W. Bush, Ruhe says the MOP was «designed specifically» for targets like Fordow, where nuclear sites or command and control bunkers are hidden far underground.
Two separate bombs are dropped by a B2 Spirit stealth bomber. (Fox News)
How many bunker busters are needed?
Ruhe said that the number of munitions required to target Fordow depends on the depth of the facility. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies states that Fordow’s facility is between 60 and 90 meters (196 to 295 feet) below ground. The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi told The Financial Times last week that the facility reaches 800 meters underground.
Ruhe said Grossi, who has been to the Fordow facility, may have been «trying to message, ‘hey, military action is not the solution here.’»
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The illustration shows the first bomb exploding and creating a hole. (Fox News)
The MOP is said to have a penetration depth of 200 feet. Ruhe said that given Fordow’s distance underground and the difficulty of penetrating the rocky mountainside the site is dug into, the U.S. would likely use a technique called burrowing, in which a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber would «drop several MOPs in succession, one after the other.»
Fordow poses a unique target. Ruhe said that pilots have to take into account the facility’s multiple, narrow exit tunnels, and achieve the right angle of impact to penetrate the ground.
Though Israeli air dominance over Iran has eliminated the need for stealth air assets, Ruhe believes the stealth B-2 would be the only tool adequate for delivering the MOPs. Ruhe said timing constraints make the use of B-52 bombers «not relevant.»
Additionally, Ruhe explained that talk of loaning B-2 bombers to the Israeli Air Force is «a dangerous distraction.» Not only is there «0.0% chance» that the U.S. would give out this strategic capability, but Ruhe says training Israeli pilots to fly the B-2 would take several months.
A second bomb follows into the hole and explodes, causing more damage. (Fox News)
Can Israel take out Fordow?
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that «destroying [Fordow] from the air is a job only the U.S. can do.»
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Given that Israel is «very tactically inventive» and «very good at maximizing the capabilities they do have,» Ruhe says that Israel could achieve its goals at Fordow without the MOP.
Not only did Ruhe offer the unlikely but not impossible scenario where Israel might «storm the site in a commando raid,» but he said that Israel could use F-15s, escorted by F-35s, to deliver multiple 5,000-pound bunker busters over Fordow, utilizing the same burrowing tactic the U.S. would likely employ.
FILE – In this Oct. 25, 2015, file photo, a U.S. Air Force B2 Spirit stealth bomber performs a flyover at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/Mark Almond, File)
Such a strike, he admitted, would «achieve a more limited definition of success» than the MOP could.
Differing expectations for Fordow
The U.S. and Israel are likely to have different goals in targeting Fordow, Ruhe said. «Americans tend to think of obliterating targets,» Ruhe said, whereas Israel would «probably be fine with saying they knocked back the operations there by a year or so.»
Ruhe estimates that the bunker busters may not completely destroy the facility, but that it may be considered a success if it were to knock out the power source to Iranian centrifuges, or making «the air too polluted» for centrifuges to operate.
FORDO, IRAN — JUN. 14, 2025; Maxar satellite imagery overview of the Fordo enrichment facility located approximately 60 miles southwest of Tehran. No visible damage is observed. (Maxar Technologies via Getty)
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Israel has «successfully knocked out the other parts of Iran’s fuel cycle» in Natanz and Isfahan, Ruhe said. «If you want to prevent a nuclear Iran, Fordow is a big part of that,» Ruhe said. «But it’s only just a part of what still needs to be done and thought about.»
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this article.
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Carlos Uzcátegui, uno de los venezolanos enviados desde EE.UU. a El Salvador, al reencontrarse con su familia en Lobatera, Venezuela. Foto: AP Deportados por los tatuajes
Andry Hernandez, uno de los deportados y ahora enviados de regreso a Venezuela, muestra los tatuajes en sus brazos. Foto: AP INTERNACIONAL
For years, US-approved visas meant for abused children went to adults, criminals and gang members, DHS finds
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FIRST ON FOX: An immigration program meant to provide permanent legal status to undocumented migrant children who experience abuse or neglect was, under the Biden administration, offered mostly to illegal immigrants older than age 18, many of whom had criminal records, according to a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report obtained by Fox News Digital.
A Trump administration review of the special immigrant juvenile petition program found that between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2024, 198,414 special immigrant juvenile petitions were approved. And in fiscal year 2024, 52% of special immigrant juvenile petitioners were over the age of 18 through a loophole that allowed classification to be offered up to age 21.
Of those petitioners, 60% were male. Massachusetts, New York, Maryland and California are hot spots, states where courts routinely approve special immigrant juvenile predicate orders for legal adults, often based solely on affidavits.
Affidavits alone, often written by the petitioner or a petitioner’s lawyer, are used to claim abandonment or neglect. Judges may sign off without hearings.
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A Trump administration review of the special immigrant juvenile petition program found that between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2024, 198,414 special immigrant juvenile visas were approved. (Benjamin Lowy for Fox News Digital )
Misuse of the program didn’t just occur under Biden. Since 2013, more than 600 MS-13 gang members applied for the special immigrant juvenile visa, according to the DHS report, and more than 500 of them were approved.
The report also identified 853 known or suspected gang members who filed special immigrant juvenile petitions, most of whom were approved.
At least 120 of those petitioning for special immigrant juvenile visas since 2013 have been arrested for murder, and more than 200 of those who had their visas approved were convicted of sex offenses and required to register on the National Sex Offender Registry.
Many petitioners filed when they were older than age 18 and qualified because they were raised with one natural parent and claimed the other parent was not involved in their life, «abandonment,» or did not financially support them, «neglect,» according to the report.
More than 100 known or suspected members of the 18th Street gang, a criminal group with origins in California and Mexico, had special immigrant juvenile petitions approved since 2013, and dozens of others suspected of involvement in the Tren de Aragua, Sureño and Norteño gangs had approved special immigrant juvenile visas, according to the report.
The Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras accounted for approximately 73.6% of all filings within the special immigrant juvenile program from 2014 to 2024.
In 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received a petition from a 19-year-old suspected of plotting an Islamic State terror attack in the U.S. after he requested another adult be appointed his legal guardian.
But the new report found that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decided against interviewing or requiring biometrics for those under the age of 18. Even for those 18 and older, only 36% were asked to submit biometrics.
An Ecuadorian migrant child walks through the river Nov. 20, 2022, in Darién Gap, Colombia. (Jan Sochor/Getty Images)
Since fiscal year 2013, nearly 20,000 special immigrant juvenile petitioners submitted conflicting birth dates, with 18,407 appearing over the age of 21 based on prior records — the program age cutoff.
Fraud may be widespread in countries with weak documentation systems, like Bangladesh, Somalia and Yemen, where birth certificates are easily falsified, the report said.
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«Criminal aliens are infiltrating the U.S. through a program meant to protect abused, neglected or abandoned alien children,» said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser. «This report exposes how the open border lobby and activist judges are exploiting loopholes in the name of aiding helpless children.»
More than 600 MS-13 gang members applied for the SIJ visa, according to the DHS report, and over 500 of them were approved. (John Alle/Santa Monica Coalition)
In June, the Citizenship and Immigration Services office stopped offering deferred immigration enforcement for special immigrant juveniles. The office said it is looking at new ways to «ensure the SIJ classification remains available for the juveniles it was intended to protect.»
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Congress first established the program in 1990 to allow young unlawful immigrants that a court has determined cannot reunify with parents due to abuse or neglect to apply for special immigrant juvenile classification, lawful permanent resident status and have an eventual path to U.S. citizenship. But, by law, there are no criminal bars or good moral character requirements for special immigrant juvenile petition approval.
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Russia and Ukraine took aim at corresponding Black Sea resort cities early Thursday morning, just hours after ceasefire talks in Turkey once again failed to deliver results.
The major Russian resort city of Sochi was rocked by a Ukrainian drone strike that began around 1 a.m. and lasted until 3 a.m., where one person was reportedly killed and another injured, according to Ukrainian media outlet the Kyiv Independent, though the Ukrainian military has not commented on the incident.
An oil depot in the Krasnodar Krai region where Sochi is located was also struck, though the extent of the damage remains unclear.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting via a video conference at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 23, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
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Kyiv has routinely levied strikes at Russian territory as Moscow continues to pummel not only the eastern frontlines of Ukraine, but civilian populations across the country.
What Ukraine may have been targeting in Sochi remains unclear, though the city is home to some of Russia’s most favored vacation locations as well as the infamous Soviet-era palace used by the Kremlin leaders as a retreat, and allegedly housed Russian President Vladimir Putin during the COVID pandemic – though it was reportedly demolished in 2024 over Ukrainian strike concerns.
Russia also hit the Ukrainian port city of Odessa – which has been repeatedly targeted in the three-year-long war – in early morning strikes in what Ukraine’s State Emergency Service described as «another hellish night» as a nine-story residential building was struck.
«The residents from the 5th to the 8th floors lost their homes,» the emergency management body said in a statement posted to Telegram. «There is a risk of structural collapse.»
Emergency rescue teams evacuated 38 people, including five who were trapped in their apartments.
At least four people were injured in the overnight strikes, according to Reuters, and fires were reported to have raged in other parts of the city as well.
Russia launched a terrifying assault on the Ukrainian Black Sea city Odessa, hitting a nine-floor residential building and destroying the iconic Privoz Market, which has existed since 1827, on July 24, 2025. (East2West via Ukraine Ministry of Defense)
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«Overnight, russian forces launched a massive attack on Odesa. As a result of an attack, one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the Pryvoz market, caught fire,» Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said in a post on X. «Also, multiple civilian targets were damaged, including the residential high-rise, a two-story building, a gas station, and even a UNESCO-protected architectural monument in the city center.
«Once again, Russians target civilian cities – there is zero military gain from these strikes,» the ministry added. «Ukraine needs more air defense systems to protect our people from such terror.»
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said on Thursday that «dozens» of civilians in Kharkiv, including children, were injured in an overnight attack by Russian glide bombs.
«These are utterly senseless strikes with no military purpose whatsoever,» Zelenskyy said. «And we see that this is Russia’s only intention – to continue aggression and killings.
«That is precisely why we need support in defense – strong air defenses, expanded weapons production. All of this will help save lives,» he added.
While Ukraine’s Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal met with NATO officials this week to discuss ramping up defensive aid and counter capabilities, attempted ceasefire talks in Istanbul between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv again failed to achieve any results, though future POW swaps were again discussed.
Zelenskyy took to X to voice his frustration at the continued Russian attacks despite Ukrainian efforts to secure a ceasefire, and said, «Yesterday, at the meeting in Istanbul, the proposal for an immediate and full ceasefire was reiterated to the Russian side.»
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Vladimir Medinskiy, advisor to President Vladimir Putin, speaks to the press at the Ciragan Palace following the third round of peace talks hosted by Turkey in Istanbul on July 23, 2025. (Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
«In response, Russian drones struck residential buildings and the Pryvoz market in Odesa, apartment blocks in Cherkasy, energy infrastructure in the Kharkiv region, a university gym in Zaporizhzhia. Donetsk, Sumy, and Mykolaiv regions were all under strikes as well,» he added. «In total, there were 103 attack drones, mostly ‘Shaheds’, and four missiles.»
President Donald Trump last week gave Putin 50 days to enter into a ceasefire or face stiff sanctions, though some have expressed concern that the threat of sanctions will not be enough to deter his war ambitions.
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