🔗 Share this article

A series of US and Israeli strikes has reportedly sunk or crippled at least eleven Iran's navy ships starting the weekend, freshly analyzed orbital imagery demonstrate, with rocket sites and enrichment plants also sustaining hits.

Photographs of the southern Konarak naval base and the Bandar Abbas port installation, which overlooks the Strait of Hormuz and is home to the headquarters of the Iranian navy, show plumes of smoke rising from several vessels on recent days.

Naval Assets Incurred Substantial Damage

Included in the ships sunk was the IRINS Makran, the country's largest naval vessel which had served as a drone carrier. Satellite images indicated dark plumes pouring from the ship which had been docked at the Bandar Abbas naval base.

Analytical reports state that no fewer than a quintet of warships at the port were "damaged or eliminated". Pictures of the southern end of the port depict plumes ascending from the Makran, while another pair of vessels are visibly impacted, with a single one seen burning.

Over at Konarak, photos show numerous damaged ships, with analysis identifying impacts on six vessels. Images taken on the start of the week also show that several structures at the base have been leveled.

"For a long time the Iran's leadership has harassed global maritime traffic," a senior US military official said. "At present, there is not one vessel from Iran at sea in the Arabian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will persist."

Some vessels reportedly destroyed may have been obscured in satellite images by haze or plumes, or targeted offshore, and have not been conclusively proven. Other accounts suggested that a ship from Iran was foundering off the coast of Sri Lanka's territorial waters, prompting a rescue operation.

Missile Installations and Atomic Locations Targeted

The destruction of Iran's rocket sites and the prevention of enrichment activities were declared as other objectives of the air campaign. Aerial imagery also depicted damage at the southern Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz missile facilities, and at the Konarak air base, where missile storage facilities and bunkers were struck.

At the Choqa Balk-e drone UAV facility west of the city of Kermanshah, significant destruction was observed to warehouses, bunkers and UAV launching apparatus.

Impact was also seen at a surveillance station at the Zahedan airbase military airport in eastern parts of the country, close to the border with neighboring nations.

Perhaps most notably, the latest wave of attacks have reportedly focused on installations at the Natanz complex – widely believed to be at the core of the country's nuclear programme. A global monitoring agency said that the damaged buildings were used for entry to the facility's underground enrichment facility and that "no release of radioactive material" was anticipated.

Wider Consequences and Analysis

Military analysts stated that the offensive appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iran's naval ability to sustain conventional attacks using its largest vessels. But, it was noted that Iran still has the option to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of drones, midget subs and its so-called "ghost fleet" of tankers.

The total scale of the damage caused to Iran's defense infrastructure is still uncertain, with strikes said to be persisting. Imagery also reveals widespread destruction to the command center of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the capital Tehran.

A large number of civilian buildings also seem to have been hit in the capital city and across the country after the conflict began. Toll estimates from ground sources suggest that a high number of non-combatants may have been killed in the attacks.

With the conflict ongoing, review of aerial photographs will carry on to document the changing military landscape.