A wave of American and Israeli airstrikes has reportedly eliminated or harmed at least eleven Iranian naval vessels starting Saturday, new aerial photos show, with missile bases and enrichment plants also sustaining hits.
Photographs of the southerly Konarak naval base and the Bandar Abbas facility, which sits on the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the headquarters of the Iranian navy, show black smoke pouring from a number of warships on recent days.
Included in the vessels destroyed was the IRINS Makran, the country's largest naval vessel which had functioned as a unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Satellite images indicated thick smoke pouring from the vessel which had been moored at the Bandar Abbas base.
Analytical evaluations suggest that no fewer than five ships at Bandar Abbas were "struck or destroyed". Photos of the southern part of the port reveal smoke emanating from the Makran, while additional ships seem to be harmed, with one clearly on fire.
Over at Konarak, images show numerous harmed vessels, with intelligence reports identifying damage to six ships. Photos taken on the start of the week also demonstrate that multiple buildings at the installation have been destroyed.
"For many years the Iranian regime has disrupted international shipping," the head of US Central Command said. "At present, there is no Iranian ship operational in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz or Gulf of Oman, and we will persist."
A number of vessels allegedly destroyed may have been obscured in satellite images by cloud or smoke, or targeted offshore, and have yet to be fully confirmed. Separate reports suggested that an Iranian vessel was foundering near Sri Lankan territorial waters, resulting in a search and rescue mission.
Neutralizing Iran's rocket sites and the prevention of enrichment activities were stated as other goals of the offensive. Aerial imagery also depicted strikes on the southerly Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz missile bases, and at the Konarak base, where missile storage facilities and fortifications were targeted.
Over at the Choqa Balk-e unmanned aircraft site to the west of the city of Kermanshah, significant destruction was observed to storage buildings, underground facilities and unmanned aircraft systems.
Damage was also observed at a radar site at the Zahedan airbase airbase in eastern parts of the country, near the frontier with neighboring nations.
Of particular note, the most recent series of attacks have reportedly targeted facilities at Natanz – widely believed to be at the heart of the country's atomic program. The UN's atomic energy body stated that the damaged structures were used for entry to the facility's underground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was likely.
Defense experts suggested that the attacks appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iran's naval capacity to conduct traditional warfare using its most significant vessels. Nevertheless, it was emphasised that Iran maintains the capacity to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, small submarines and its so-called "clandestine network" of tankers.
The total extent of the damage caused to Iranian military facilities has yet to be fully assessed, with hostilities said to be continuing. Pictures also reveals widespread damage to the command center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the capital Tehran.
A significant number of non-military structures also are reported to have been struck in the capital and across the country since the conflict started. Casualty figures from inside Iran indicate that many hundreds of non-combatants may have been fatally injured in the strikes.
Amid continuing hostilities, analysis of satellite imagery will persist to assess the unfolding military landscape.
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