🔗 Share this article

A wave of US and Israeli strikes has reportedly sunk or crippled at least 11 Iranian naval vessels starting the weekend, recently obtained orbital imagery demonstrate, with launch facilities and nuclear sites also coming under fire.

Photographs of the southern Konarak naval military port and the Bandar Abbas port installation, which overlooks the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the main command of the Iranian navy, reveal smoke billowing from a number of ships on the start of the week.

Naval Assets Incurred Significant Damage

Among the vessels destroyed was the Makran, Iran's most sizable ship which had served as a unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Satellite images indicated dark plumes emanating from the ship which had been stationed at the Bandar Abbas naval base.

Intelligence assessments suggest that no fewer than five vessels at the port were "struck or destroyed". Imagery of the southern part of the harbor depict smoke emanating from the Makran, while another pair of ships appear to be harmed, with one visibly ablaze.

At Konarak, photos display multiple damaged ships, with expert review identifying strikes against a half-dozen warships. Images from Monday also demonstrate that several structures at the installation have been destroyed.

"For decades the Iranian regime has threatened global maritime traffic," a senior US military official said. "Today, there is no Iranian vessel underway in the Persian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will continue."

A number of vessels reportedly destroyed may have been concealed in satellite images by haze or plumes, or struck at sea, and have not been independently verified. Other accounts suggested that a ship from Iran was foundering near Sri Lanka's territorial waters, leading to a rescue operation.

Missile Bases and Atomic Facilities Attacked

The destruction of Iranian missile bases and the stopping enrichment activities were declared as other aims of the air campaign. Aerial imagery also showed strikes on the southern Khorgu base and north-western Tabriz missile missile bases, and at the Konarak base, where weapons bunkers and fortifications were targeted.

Over at the Choqa Balk-e unmanned aircraft site to the west of Kermanshah, significant damage was identified to storage buildings, underground facilities and drone launch equipment.

Impact was also seen at a surveillance station at the Zahedan military airport in eastern Iran, near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Perhaps most notably, the most recent series of strikes have reportedly targeted sites at the Natanz complex – long said to be at the core of the country's atomic program. The UN's atomic energy body stated that the affected buildings were used for entry to the facility's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no release of radioactive material" was anticipated.

Broader Impact and Assessment

Observers indicated that the strikes appeared to have "largely neutralized" the Iranian navy's capacity to sustain standard operations using its biggest warships. However, it was stressed that Tehran maintains the capacity to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, small submarines and its so-called "shadow fleet" of oil ships.

The overall extent of the destruction caused to Iran's defense facilities is still uncertain, with attacks reportedly persisting. Pictures also indicates widespread destruction to the main offices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the city of Tehran.

A significant number of civilian buildings also are reported to have been damaged in the capital and across the country after the fighting started. Reports of deaths from local officials indicate that many hundreds of civilians may have been killed in the bombardment.

As the situation develops, monitoring of space-based data will carry on to assess the changing scope of damage.