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US President Donald Trump on Friday warned that the United States could strike Iran's heavily fortified underground nuclear facility at Pickaxe Mountain "very soon", saying Washington was closely monitoring activity at the site.

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump defended the US military campaign against Iran, saying its main objective was to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

"We're in five months now. And you know what we did in five months? They're not going to have a nuclear weapon; that's what we did," Trump said.

Trump said the US could target Pickaxe Mountain if it detected activity there, claiming American intelligence was tracking movements at the facility and across Iran.

"We may hit Pickaxe very soon because if there was anything going on with Pickaxe," Trump said.

"We know everybody that's moving at Pickaxe; we know everybody that's moving everywhere all over Iran. And if anything goes bad, we hit them; we hit them hard," he added. 

What Is Pickaxe Mountain?

Pickaxe Mountain is located near Iran's heavily damaged Natanz uranium-enrichment facility. The site is described as a heavily fortified underground complex comprising two deeply buried tunnel systems.

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Israeli intelligence believes Iran has moved thousands of centrifuges to the facility.

Its deep underground construction is believed to make the site significantly more resistant to conventional aerial attacks. A US strike on the facility could therefore mark a major escalation in Washington's campaign against Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

Trump Defends US Military Campaign

Trump said the US intervention had prevented what he described as a potentially wider conflict in the region.

"If we didn't go in there, you wouldn't have Israel right now, you wouldn't have the Middle East, and they probably would go at European cities and our cities next," Trump said.

"But we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon in five months," he added.

The comments came days after the US Central Command said American forces had completed a new wave of strikes against Iranian military targets.

According to CENTCOM, the strikes targeted facilities linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including air-defence installations, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites.

CENTCOM said the operations followed recent "attempted attacks" by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and US service members.

Trump Claims US Destroyed Iranian Radar Systems

Trump also referred to recent US strikes on Iranian radar installations, claiming American forces had destroyed sophisticated systems on two occasions.

"There had been no shooting for days before the hit that we gave them the other night to wipe out the radar they had," Trump said.

"They had very sophisticated radar – they brought in radar because we knocked it out once, and now we knocked it out twice. Now we don't notice any activity," he added.

Trump suggested Iran was becoming reluctant to deploy radar systems after repeated US attacks.

"I think they're tired of putting it in and getting blown up," he said.

Iran has condemned the latest US strikes, accusing Washington of violating its sovereignty and attacking non-military infrastructure and civilian sites across several provinces.

Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its armed forces had responded with what it called "crushing defensive strikes" against US military bases in West Asia that Tehran said were used as launch, support and staging points for American attacks.