Aerial Pictures Indicate Iranian Navy and Atomic Facilities Targeted by US-Israeli Airstrikes.
Multiple US and Israeli strikes has reportedly destroyed or damaged at least 11 warships belonging to Iran since Saturday, new orbital imagery reveal, with rocket sites and atomic facilities also being targeted.
Images of the southerly Konarak military port and the Bandar Abbas port facility, which sits on the Strait of Hormuz and is home to the main command of the Iranian navy, depict plumes of smoke rising from several warships on Monday and Tuesday.
Naval Forces Sustained Substantial Losses
Included in the ships sunk was the Makran, the country's most sizable ship which had served as a unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Satellite images indicated thick smoke emanating from the ship which had been docked at the Bandar Abbas base.
Analytical assessments indicate that at least five vessels at the port were "struck or destroyed". Pictures of the southern part of the port reveal plumes ascending from the IRINS Makran, while additional ships appear to be impacted, with one seen burning.
Over at Konarak, images reveal multiple stricken ships, with expert review identifying impacts on six ships. Images taken on Monday also demonstrate that a number of buildings at the base have been leveled.
"For a long time the Tehran government has harassed global maritime traffic," a senior US military official declared. "Now, there is not a single Iranian ship at sea in the Arabian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Sea of Oman, and we will persist."
Some ships reportedly sunk may have been hidden in satellite images by weather conditions or battle damage, or hit in open waters, and have not been conclusively proven. Other accounts suggested that a ship from Iran was going down off the coast of Sri Lanka's territorial waters, prompting a rescue operation.
Rocket Bases and Atomic Facilities Hit
Eliminating Iranian missile bases and the stopping atomic bomb programs were declared as other objectives of the air campaign. Aerial imagery also revealed damage at the southerly Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz missile bases, and at the Konarak air air base, where missile storage facilities and fortifications were targeted.
At the Choqa Balk-e drone unmanned aircraft site to the west of Kermanshah, extensive destruction was observed to storage buildings, bunkers and drone launch equipment.
Damage was also seen at a radar installation at the Zahedan airbase military airport in eastern Iran, near the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Significantly, the new round of attacks have reportedly targeted sites at Natanz – considered at the heart of Iran's enrichment efforts. A global monitoring agency stated that the affected buildings were used for entry to the site's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was expected.
Broader Fallout and Assessment
Defense experts indicated that the attacks appeared to have "greatly reduced" the Iranian navy's capability to carry out standard operations using its most significant warships. But, it was emphasised 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 oil ships.
The total scope of the destruction caused to Iran's defense infrastructure remains unclear, with hostilities said to be ongoing. Pictures also indicates widespread destruction to the command center of the the IRGC in the city of Tehran.
A large number of non-military structures also seem to have been struck in the capital and throughout Iran after the hostilities escalated. Casualty figures from local officials suggest that a high number of civilians may have been lost their lives in the strikes.
With the conflict ongoing, monitoring of aerial photographs will continue to assess the evolving scope of damage.