🔗 Share this article

A wave of US and Israeli strikes has according to analysis destroyed or damaged a minimum of eleven Iran's navy ships since the weekend, recently obtained satellite images reveal, with launch facilities and enrichment plants also being targeted.

Images of the southerly Konarak naval naval base and the Bandar Abbas facility, which is located on the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the main command of the Iranian navy, reveal plumes of smoke rising from multiple warships on recent days.

Maritime Assets Incurred Significant Losses

Included in the vessels destroyed was the IRINS Makran, the country's biggest warship which had served as a drone carrier. Orbital photos showed thick smoke rising from the vessel which had been stationed at the Bandar Abbas base.

Intelligence reports indicate that no fewer than a quintet of warships at Bandar Abbas were "damaged or eliminated". Imagery of the southern part of the harbor show smoke rising from the IRINS Makran, while another pair of ships appear to be impacted, with a single one seen burning.

Over at Konarak, photos reveal several damaged vessels, with analysis identifying damage to a half-dozen warships. Images from the start of the week also indicate that several facilities at the base have been destroyed.

"For a long time the Tehran government has harassed global maritime traffic," a senior US military official declared. "At present, there is not a single Iranian vessel at sea in the Arabian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will persist."

A number of vessels allegedly destroyed may have been hidden in aerial photos by cloud or smoke, or targeted offshore, and have not been conclusively proven. Additional information indicated that an Iranian vessel was sinking near Sri Lankan waters, leading to a rescue operation.

Missile Bases and Atomic Locations Hit

Neutralizing Iran's rocket sites and the prevention of enrichment activities were listed as other objectives of the air campaign. Satellite images also depicted strikes on the southerly Khorgu and north-western Tabriz missile bases, and at the Konarak air air base, where rocket warehouses and fortifications were hit.

At the Choqa Balk-e UAV facility west of Kermanshah, extensive damage was identified to sheds, bunkers and UAV launching apparatus.

Destruction was also observed at a surveillance station at the Zahedan airbase airbase in eastern parts of the country, near the border with neighboring nations.

Significantly, the new round of attacks have apparently focused on installations at Natanz – considered at the heart of Iran's nuclear programme. An international watchdog said that the affected structures were used for access to the site's underground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was likely.

Wider Consequences and Assessment

Military analysts suggested that the strikes appeared to have "largely neutralized" the Iran's naval ability to sustain standard operations using its most significant vessels. However, it was emphasised that Iran still has the capacity to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, midget subs and its so-called "clandestine network" of oil ships.

The full scale of the damage caused to Iranian military facilities is still uncertain, with attacks said to be ongoing. Pictures also shows extensive damage to the main offices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the city of Tehran.

Numerous of public facilities also seem to have been struck in the capital city and throughout the country after the hostilities began. Casualty figures from ground sources state that many hundreds of non-combatants may have been lost their lives in the bombardment.

Amid continuing hostilities, analysis of satellite imagery will carry on to track the evolving battlefield picture.