Space-Based Imagery Reveal Iran's Navy and Nuclear Sites Damaged by US-Israeli Strikes.
A series of joint strikes has reportedly destroyed or damaged at least eleven warships belonging to Iran since the weekend, recently obtained aerial photos reveal, with launch facilities and atomic facilities also coming under fire.
Pictures of the southern Konarak naval base and the Bandar Abbas installation, which sits on the Strait of Hormuz and is home to the main command of the Iranian navy, depict smoke billowing from several warships on recent days.
Naval Fleet Incurred Substantial Damage
Included in the targets eliminated was the IRINS Makran, the country's largest naval vessel which had been used as a drone carrier. Satellite images indicated dark plumes pouring from the vessel which had been docked at the Bandar Abbas naval base.
Intelligence assessments state that no fewer than a quintet of warships at the port were "hit or sunk". Photos of the southern end of the port show smoke rising from the IRINS Makran, while additional vessels are visibly impacted, with a single one visibly ablaze.
At the Konarak base, photos reveal several damaged ships, with analysis identifying strikes against a half-dozen warships. Pictures taken on Monday also indicate that a number of structures at the base have been destroyed.
"For decades the Iran's leadership has disrupted commercial vessels," a senior US military official said. "Today, there is not a single Iranian vessel operational in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz or Gulf of Oman, and we will not stop."
Some ships reportedly destroyed may have been obscured in satellite images by weather conditions or battle damage, or targeted offshore, and have not been conclusively proven. Other accounts stated that one Iranian ship was going down off the coast of Sri Lanka's territorial waters, prompting a search and rescue mission.
Missile Bases and Atomic Facilities Targeted
The destruction of Iran's rocket sites and the stopping nuclear weapons development were listed as other objectives of the military strikes. Satellite images also depicted strikes on the southern Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz facilities, and at the Konarak air air base, where missile storage facilities and fortifications were struck.
Over at the Choqa Balk-e drone unmanned aircraft site to the west of Kermanshah, extensive destruction was seen to warehouses, underground facilities and UAV launching apparatus.
Damage was also observed at a radar installation at the Zahedan airbase in eastern parts of the country, near the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Perhaps most notably, the latest wave of attacks have reportedly targeted facilities at the Natanz complex – long said to be at the core of Iran's enrichment efforts. A global monitoring agency commented that the affected structures were used for access to the facility's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was likely.
Broader Impact and Assessment
Observers indicated that the strikes appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iranian navy's capacity to carry out conventional attacks using its most significant vessels. Nevertheless, it was stressed that Iran retains the capacity to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, small submarines and its so-called "clandestine network" of oil ships.
The full extent of the destruction caused to Iranian military facilities has yet to be fully assessed, with hostilities reportedly persisting. Pictures also reveals widespread damage to the command center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the city of Tehran.
Numerous of non-military structures also are reported to have been damaged in the capital and across Iran after the fighting started. Reports of deaths from inside Iran indicate that many hundreds of civilians may have been fatally injured in the attacks.
As the situation develops, analysis of aerial photographs will persist to document the unfolding military landscape.