After the US launched massive strikes at three Iranian nuclear sites last weekend, new satellite images have surfaced showing construction equipment, indicating possible repair work underway and efforts to dig out new access paths. The images by the US commercial satellite imaging company Maxar Technologies, which were obtained by Business Insider, showed new activity near the tunnel entrances, as well as the points where heavy US bombs struck Fordow over the weekend.

One of the images showed excavators and bulldozers apparently moving dirt near craters and holes on the northern mountain ridge at Fordow. Other images showed construction equipment digging new roads to the facility, while engaging in efforts to repair damage on the main access road.

The work indicates that Iran is possibly attempting to restore access to the underground site in order to assess the condition of it and its equipment, although US President Donald Trump has warned further strikes if Iran continues with its nuclear programme.

Fordow was one of the three key nuclear sites hit by the US military with the use of powerful GBU-57A “bunker-busting bombs”. The US used six B-12 bombers to use a dozen GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs in its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The Fordow nuclear site is an underground nuclear facility in Iran that is buried deep in the mountains, supposedly out of reach of Israeli missiles. The 13,600-kg US “bunker-busting” bomb was the only munition capable of striking Fordow. Israel had appealed to the US to use the munitions.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said centrifuges at the Fordow uranium enrichment plant in Iran are “no longer operational” after the US attack. However, he said it would be “too much” to assert that Iran’s nuclear programme had been “wiped out” after the Israeli and American bombing campaign.

Iran has also acknowledged that its nuclear sites suffered “extensive and serious” damage as a result of the US and Israeli bombing campaign. However, a CNN report cited a classified Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment suggesting that the strikes only set Iran’s nuclear program back by a few months, rather than destroying it, which came under heavy backlash by the White House.