Satellite Pictures Show Iranian Navy and Nuclear Locations Damaged by US-Israeli Strikes.
Multiple joint airstrikes has allegedly sunk or crippled at least eleven warships belonging to Iran since the weekend, recently obtained orbital imagery demonstrate, with rocket sites and atomic facilities also coming under fire.
Pictures of the southern Konarak naval military port and the Bandar Abbas port facility, which sits on the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the main command of the Iran's naval force, show plumes of smoke rising from a number of warships on Monday and Tuesday.
Maritime Assets Sustained Substantial Losses
Included in the ships sunk was the IRINS Makran, Iran's largest naval vessel which had served as a drone carrier. Satellite images showed black smoke rising from the ship which had been moored at the Bandar Abbas base.
Analytical evaluations indicate that no fewer than five vessels at Bandar Abbas were "damaged or eliminated". Imagery of the south end of the port reveal smoke emanating from the IRINS Makran, while another pair of ships are visibly impacted, with one of them visibly ablaze.
Over at Konarak, images reveal multiple damaged ships, with analysis pointing to strikes against six ships. Images from Monday also show that multiple facilities at the base have been destroyed.
"For decades the Iran's leadership has harassed commercial vessels," a senior US military official declared. "Today, there is not one vessel from Iran underway in the Arabian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will continue."
A number of ships allegedly sunk may have been hidden in satellite images by weather conditions or battle damage, or struck at sea, and have not been independently verified. Other accounts stated that one Iranian ship was foundering off the coast of Sri Lanka's territorial waters, resulting in a search and rescue mission.
Missile Sites and Nuclear Facilities Attacked
Neutralizing Tehran's launch facilities and the hindering of atomic bomb programs were listed as further aims of the air campaign. Satellite images also depicted damage at the southern Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz missile facilities, and at the Konarak air air base, where rocket warehouses and bunkers were struck.
At the Choqa Balk-e unmanned aircraft site west of Kermanshah, extensive damage was seen to storage buildings, bunkers and UAV launching apparatus.
Destruction was also noted at a radar site at the Zahedan military airport in eastern Iran, near the frontier with neighboring nations.
Perhaps most notably, the latest wave of strikes have reportedly focused on facilities at the Natanz complex – widely believed to be at the core of Iran's atomic program. The UN's atomic energy body stated that the damaged buildings were used for access to the site's underground nuclear plant and that "no radiological consequence" was likely.
Wider Consequences and Assessment
Observers stated that the offensive appeared to have "largely neutralized" the Iran's naval ability to sustain conventional attacks using its biggest warships. But, it was noted that Iran maintains the capacity to launch asymmetric warfare at sea through the use of drones, mini-submarines and its so-called "shadow fleet" of oil ships.
The full extent of the damage caused to Iran's defense facilities remains unclear, with attacks reportedly ongoing. Pictures also reveals widespread damage to the main offices of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the city of Tehran.
A large number of civilian buildings also appear to have been damaged in the capital city and across Iran since the hostilities escalated. Reports of deaths from local officials suggest that a high number of civilians may have been fatally injured in the strikes.
Amid continuing hostilities, monitoring of space-based data will carry on to assess the evolving military landscape.