🔗 Share this article

Multiple American and Israeli airstrikes has allegedly eliminated or harmed a minimum of eleven Iran's navy ships since the weekend, freshly analyzed aerial photos reveal, with launch facilities and nuclear sites also being targeted.

Pictures of the southerly Konarak military port and the Bandar Abbas installation, which is located on the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the main command of the Iran's naval force, show smoke billowing from a number of ships on Monday and Tuesday.

Maritime Forces Sustained Significant Losses

Included in the ships sunk was the IRINS Makran, the country's biggest warship which had functioned as a unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Satellite images displayed dark plumes rising from the vessel which had been stationed at the Bandar Abbas naval base.

Analytical assessments suggest that at least five vessels at the port were "hit or sunk". Pictures of the southern part of the harbor show smoke rising from the IRINS Makran, while another pair of vessels are visibly damaged, with one visibly ablaze.

At Konarak, photos display numerous harmed ships, with analysis pointing to damage to six vessels. Pictures from the start of the week also indicate that a number of facilities at the base have been leveled.

"For decades the Tehran government has threatened commercial vessels," a senior US military official declared. "Today, there is not one Iranian vessel operational 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 satellite images by haze or plumes, or hit in open waters, and have not been independently verified. Other accounts stated that a ship from Iran was going down off the coast of Sri Lanka's waters, leading to a rescue operation.

Rocket Installations and Nuclear Locations Attacked

The destruction of Tehran's launch facilities and the prevention of atomic bomb programs were stated as additional aims of the military strikes. Satellite images also revealed strikes on the southern Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz missile bases, and at the Konarak base, where rocket warehouses and bunkers were hit.

Over at the Choqa Balk-e drone base to the west of the city of Kermanshah, significant destruction was seen to storage buildings, underground facilities and drone launch equipment.

Damage was also noted at a surveillance station at the Zahedan military airport in eastern parts of the country, close to the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Significantly, the most recent series of attacks have reportedly targeted sites at the Natanz complex – long said to be at the core of Iran's enrichment efforts. The UN's atomic energy body said that the damaged structures were used for entry to the facility's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no radiological consequence" was anticipated.

Wider Consequences and Assessment

Military analysts indicated that the offensive appeared to have "largely neutralized" the Iran's naval capacity to conduct standard operations using its biggest warships. However, it was noted that Iran retains the capacity to launch asymmetric warfare at sea through the use of drones, mini-submarines and its so-called "shadow fleet" of tankers.

The overall scale of the destruction caused to Iran's defense infrastructure has yet to be fully assessed, with hostilities said to be persisting. Pictures also shows extensive destruction to the command center of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the city of Tehran.

A significant number of civilian buildings also seem to have been damaged in the capital and across Iran after the hostilities began. Toll estimates from inside Iran state that hundreds of civilians may have been fatally injured in the attacks.

With the conflict ongoing, analysis of satellite imagery will persist to document the unfolding military landscape.