Orbital Pictures Show Iran's Naval Forces and Atomic Locations Targeted by American and Israeli Strikes.
A wave of US and Israeli airstrikes has reportedly eliminated or harmed at least 11 Iranian naval vessels since the weekend, new aerial photos demonstrate, with launch facilities and enrichment plants also being targeted.
Pictures of the southerly Konarak military port and the Bandar Abbas port facility, which sits on the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the main command of the Iranian navy, reveal plumes of smoke rising from a number of warships on Monday and Tuesday.
Naval Fleet Sustained Major Damage
Among the vessels destroyed was the IRINS Makran, Iran's largest naval vessel which had been used as a drone carrier. Aerial imagery showed dark plumes pouring from the vessel which had been docked at the Bandar Abbas naval base.
Analytical evaluations indicate that no fewer than a quintet of warships at Bandar Abbas were "hit or sunk". Imagery of the south end of the harbor reveal smoke rising from the IRINS Makran, while additional vessels are visibly impacted, with one visibly ablaze.
At Konarak, photos reveal numerous damaged ships, with intelligence reports pointing to damage to a half-dozen warships. Photos from the start of the week also show that a number of facilities at the installation have been demolished.
"For a long time the Tehran government has disrupted commercial vessels," a senior US military official said. "At present, there is not a single vessel from Iran at sea in the Arabian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Sea of Oman, and we will persist."
A number of vessels allegedly destroyed may have been hidden in aerial photos by cloud or smoke, or struck at sea, and have not been conclusively proven. Separate reports stated that an Iranian vessel was foundering off the coast of Sri Lankan territorial waters, leading to a rescue operation.
Missile Bases and Atomic Facilities Hit
Eliminating Iran's rocket sites and the prevention of atomic bomb programs were listed as further objectives of the offensive. Aerial imagery also revealed impacts against the southern Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz facilities, and at the Konarak base, where missile storage facilities and fortifications were hit.
At the Choqa Balk-e drone UAV facility to the west of the city of Kermanshah, extensive destruction was identified to warehouses, underground facilities and unmanned aircraft systems.
Destruction was also seen at a surveillance station at the Zahedan airbase in eastern Iran, close to the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Perhaps most notably, the new round of attacks have reportedly targeted facilities at Natanz – long said to be at the core of the country's atomic program. The UN's atomic energy body said that the affected structures were used for access to the site's underground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was expected.
Wider Impact and Assessment
Defense experts indicated that the strikes appeared to have "largely neutralized" the Iran's naval capacity to sustain conventional attacks using its biggest warships. But, it was stressed that Tehran maintains the capacity to launch asymmetric warfare at sea through the use of drones, small submarines and its so-called "shadow fleet" of oil ships.
The full scope of the damage caused to Iran's defense facilities has yet to be fully assessed, with attacks reportedly ongoing. Photos also indicates considerable damage to the main offices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the city of Tehran.
A large number of public facilities also are reported to have been struck in the capital city and throughout the country since the hostilities began. Casualty figures from inside Iran suggest that many hundreds of non-combatants may have been lost their lives in the strikes.
As the situation develops, review of space-based data will continue to track the changing military landscape.