🔗 Share this article

A wave of US and Israeli strikes has allegedly destroyed or damaged at least eleven warships belonging to Iran starting Saturday, new aerial photos reveal, with launch facilities and enrichment plants also coming under fire.

Pictures of the southerly Konarak military port and the Bandar Abbas port installation, which sits on the Strait of Hormuz and contains the main command of the Iranian navy, depict smoke billowing from a number of ships on recent days.

Naval Assets Incurred Major Damage

Included in the targets eliminated was the IRINS Makran, Iran's most sizable ship which had functioned as a drone carrier. Satellite images showed dark plumes emanating from the ship which had been stationed at the Bandar Abbas base.

Analytical reports state that no fewer than five ships at the port were "hit or sunk". Photos of the south end of the port show smoke rising from the Makran, while two other vessels appear to be impacted, with one of them seen burning.

At Konarak, photos display numerous damaged vessels, with intelligence reports pointing to strikes against six ships. Images taken on Monday also indicate that a number of buildings at the installation have been destroyed.

"For decades the Tehran government has disrupted international shipping," the head of US Central Command stated. "At present, there is not one Iranian ship at sea in the Arabian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will not stop."

A number of ships allegedly sunk may have been hidden in aerial photos by weather conditions or battle damage, or hit in open waters, and have not been independently verified. Additional information indicated that an Iranian vessel was sinking off the coast of Sri Lanka's territorial waters, resulting in a rescue operation.

Missile Sites and Nuclear Locations Hit

Neutralizing Tehran's launch facilities and the hindering of nuclear weapons development were declared as additional aims of the air campaign. Satellite images also depicted impacts against the southerly Khorgu base and north-western Tabriz missile bases, and at the Konarak air air base, where missile storage facilities and bunkers were targeted.

At the Choqa Balk-e drone drone base west of the city of Kermanshah, extensive damage was observed to sheds, bunkers and unmanned aircraft systems.

Destruction was also observed at a radar site at the Zahedan airbase military airport in eastern parts of the country, near the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Significantly, the new round of strikes have apparently focused on installations at Natanz – considered at the center of the country's atomic program. An international watchdog stated that the damaged structures were used for entry to the facility's below-ground nuclear plant and that "no radiological consequence" was expected.

Broader Consequences and Assessment

Defense experts indicated that the strikes appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iranian navy's capacity to sustain conventional attacks using its largest vessels. But, it was stressed that Tehran retains the ability to launch irregular strikes at sea through the use of drones, small submarines and its so-called "clandestine network" of tankers.

The overall scale of the damage caused to Iranian military infrastructure is still uncertain, with attacks reportedly persisting. Photos also indicates extensive destruction to the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the capital Tehran.

A significant number of civilian buildings also appear to have been struck in the capital city and throughout the country since the conflict escalated. Toll estimates from ground sources suggest that hundreds of civilians may have been lost their lives in the bombardment.

With the conflict ongoing, monitoring of space-based data will continue to track the changing scope of damage.