A wave of joint attacks has reportedly eliminated or harmed no fewer than eleven warships belonging to Iran starting the weekend, recently obtained aerial photos demonstrate, with rocket sites and atomic facilities also sustaining hits.
Photographs of the southern Konarak naval naval base and the Bandar Abbas port installation, which overlooks the Strait of Hormuz and is home to the headquarters of the Iran's naval force, reveal smoke billowing from multiple ships on recent days.
Included in the ships sunk was the Makran, the country's most sizable ship which had functioned as a drone carrier. Orbital photos showed thick smoke pouring from the ship which had been moored at the Bandar Abbas base.
Analytical evaluations indicate that no fewer than a quintet of warships at the port were "hit or sunk". Photos of the southern part of the port depict smoke emanating from the IRINS Makran, while two other vessels appear to be impacted, with a single one visibly ablaze.
Over at the Konarak base, photos reveal multiple harmed ships, with analysis pointing to strikes against six ships. Photos from Monday also indicate that several facilities at the installation have been leveled.
"For a long time the Iranian regime has threatened international shipping," a senior US military official stated. "Today, there is no vessel from Iran operational in the Persian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will not stop."
Some vessels allegedly destroyed may have been concealed in satellite images by weather conditions or battle damage, or targeted offshore, and have not been conclusively proven. Additional information suggested that a ship from Iran was sinking off the coast of Sri Lankan waters, prompting a rescue operation.
The destruction of Iran's rocket sites and the hindering of nuclear weapons development were declared as additional goals of the military strikes. Aerial imagery also revealed damage at the southern Khorgu base and north-western Tabriz facilities, and at the Konarak air air base, where missile storage facilities and fortifications were struck.
At the Choqa Balk-e unmanned aircraft site to the west of the city of Kermanshah, significant damage was observed to storage buildings, underground facilities and unmanned aircraft systems.
Impact was also observed at a radar installation at the Zahedan airbase in eastern parts of the country, near the frontier with neighboring nations.
Perhaps most notably, the most recent series of attacks have reportedly hit sites at Natanz – considered at the heart of Iran's atomic program. The UN's atomic energy body said that the affected structures were used for access to the facility's underground nuclear plant and that "no release of radioactive material" was likely.
Observers suggested that the strikes appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iranian navy's capability to sustain conventional attacks using its biggest vessels. But, it was emphasised that Iran maintains the capacity to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, mini-submarines and its so-called "shadow fleet" of tankers.
The full scope of the damage caused to Iranian military infrastructure has yet to be fully assessed, with attacks said to be persisting. Imagery also reveals considerable destruction to the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the city of Tehran.
A large number of civilian buildings also appear to have been hit in the capital city and throughout the country after the conflict began. Reports of deaths from inside Iran indicate that a high number of non-combatants may have been fatally injured in the strikes.
With the conflict ongoing, monitoring of satellite imagery will carry on to document the unfolding scope of damage.
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