Aerial Imagery Depict Iranian Naval Forces and Nuclear Locations Hit by US-Israeli Airstrikes.
Multiple US and Israeli attacks has reportedly destroyed or damaged no fewer than eleven Iran's navy ships since the weekend, new orbital imagery demonstrate, with launch facilities and nuclear sites also being targeted.
Pictures of the southern Konarak naval military port and the Bandar Abbas port facility, which is located on the Strait of Hormuz and houses the main command of the Iranian navy, depict black smoke pouring from multiple warships on the start of the week.
Naval Assets Incurred Significant Losses
Among the vessels destroyed was the Makran, Iran's largest naval vessel which had functioned as a unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Satellite images indicated dark plumes emanating from the vessel which had been moored at the Bandar Abbas naval base.
Intelligence assessments indicate that at least a quintet of warships at the port were "hit or sunk". Imagery of the south end of the port depict plumes ascending from the Makran, while another pair of ships seem to be harmed, with one of them visibly ablaze.
At Konarak, photos reveal multiple harmed ships, with expert review pointing to damage to a half-dozen warships. Photos from the start of the week also demonstrate that several buildings at the installation have been destroyed.
"For many years the Iran's leadership has harassed international shipping," an American commander declared. "At present, there is no vessel from Iran underway in the Persian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Sea of Oman, and we will continue."
Some vessels reportedly destroyed may have been concealed in satellite images by cloud or smoke, or hit in open waters, and have yet to be fully confirmed. Other accounts stated that one Iranian ship was sinking off the coast of Sri Lankan territorial waters, leading to a search and rescue mission.
Missile Sites and Atomic Facilities Targeted
Eliminating Iranian missile bases and the stopping enrichment activities were listed as other objectives of the air campaign. Aerial imagery also revealed impacts against the southerly Khorgu and north-western Tabriz missile bases, and at the Konarak air base, where weapons bunkers and fortifications were hit.
At the Choqa Balk-e UAV facility to the west of the city of Kermanshah, widespread destruction was identified to sheds, bunkers and UAV launching apparatus.
Destruction was also observed at a surveillance station at the Zahedan airbase airbase in eastern Iran, near the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Significantly, the latest wave of strikes have apparently hit sites at Natanz – considered at the center of the country's nuclear programme. A global monitoring agency commented that the damaged buildings were used for access to the site's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was anticipated.
Wider Impact and Assessment
Military analysts suggested that the attacks appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iran's naval capacity to conduct conventional attacks using its biggest warships. However, it was stressed that Iran still has the capacity to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of drones, mini-submarines and its so-called "clandestine network" of tankers.
The total scale of the damage caused to Iranian military infrastructure has yet to be fully assessed, with hostilities reportedly continuing. Imagery also shows widespread destruction to the command center of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the city of Tehran.
Numerous of non-military structures also appear to have been hit in the capital city and across the country after the hostilities began. Casualty figures from ground sources indicate that hundreds of civilians may have been lost their lives in the strikes.
Amid continuing hostilities, analysis of satellite imagery will carry on to track the unfolding military landscape.