🔗 Share this article

Multiple US and Israeli airstrikes has according to analysis eliminated or harmed at least eleven Iranian naval vessels starting Saturday, freshly analyzed orbital imagery reveal, with rocket sites and enrichment plants also coming under fire.

Photographs of the southern Konarak naval naval base and the Bandar Abbas facility, which sits on the strategic Hormuz Strait and houses the headquarters of the Iranian navy, reveal plumes of smoke rising from several warships on Monday and Tuesday.

Naval Assets Incurred Substantial Losses

Included in the vessels destroyed was the Makran, Iran's biggest warship which had been used as a drone carrier. Satellite images indicated dark plumes rising from the ship which had been docked at the Bandar Abbas naval base.

Analytical assessments state that at least a quintet of warships at the port were "struck or destroyed". Pictures of the southern end of the port show plumes ascending from the Makran, while additional vessels seem to be harmed, with one of them clearly on fire.

At Konarak, images reveal multiple damaged ships, with expert review pointing to impacts on six ships. Pictures from Monday also show that a number of buildings at the installation have been demolished.

"For many years the Tehran government has harassed commercial vessels," a senior US military official declared. "Today, there is not a single Iranian ship underway in the Persian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will continue."

Some vessels allegedly sunk may have been concealed in satellite images by weather conditions or battle damage, or struck at sea, and have yet to be fully confirmed. Separate reports indicated that one Iranian ship was sinking near Sri Lankan waters, prompting a search and rescue mission.

Rocket Installations and Nuclear Facilities Attacked

The destruction of Tehran's launch facilities and the hindering of enrichment activities were stated as further goals of the offensive. Aerial imagery also showed strikes on the southerly Khorgu and north-western Tabriz missile facilities, and at the Konarak base, where weapons bunkers and fortifications were hit.

At the Choqa Balk-e drone unmanned aircraft site west of the city of Kermanshah, widespread damage was seen to storage buildings, underground facilities and UAV launching apparatus.

Destruction was also noted at a surveillance station at the Zahedan airbase in eastern Iran, close to the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Of particular note, the new round of attacks have apparently focused on installations at the Natanz complex – considered at the core of the country's enrichment efforts. A global monitoring agency said that the damaged buildings were used for entry to the site's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was expected.

Wider Fallout and Assessment

Observers suggested that the attacks appeared to have "largely neutralized" the Iranian navy's capacity to sustain standard operations using its largest vessels. But, it was emphasised that Iran maintains the capacity to launch irregular strikes at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, midget subs and its so-called "ghost fleet" of tankers.

The full extent of the destruction caused to Iranian military facilities remains unclear, with strikes reportedly ongoing. Photos also shows considerable destruction to the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the capital Tehran.

Numerous of public facilities also appear to have been damaged in the capital city and across Iran after the fighting escalated. Casualty figures from ground sources indicate that hundreds of non-combatants may have been fatally injured in the bombardment.

As the situation develops, review of space-based data will continue to track the unfolding military landscape.