🔗 Share this article

Multiple joint strikes has reportedly destroyed or damaged no fewer than 11 Iran's navy ships since the weekend, freshly analyzed aerial photos reveal, with missile bases and enrichment plants also being targeted.

Pictures of the southerly Konarak naval naval base and the Bandar Abbas installation, which is located on the strategic Hormuz Strait and contains the headquarters of the Iranian navy, reveal smoke billowing from multiple warships on Monday and Tuesday.

Maritime Assets Sustained Significant Damage

Included in the targets eliminated was the Makran, the country's most sizable ship which had functioned as a unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Orbital photos showed black smoke pouring from the vessel which had been docked at the Bandar Abbas base.

Analytical assessments indicate that at least a quintet of warships at Bandar Abbas were "hit or sunk". Photos of the southern part of the port show smoke rising from the IRINS Makran, while two other vessels appear to be harmed, with one seen burning.

Over at the Konarak base, photos display multiple damaged ships, with analysis pointing to impacts on a half-dozen warships. Pictures from Monday also demonstrate that multiple facilities at the installation have been destroyed.

"For many years the Iranian regime has threatened commercial vessels," the head of US Central Command said. "Now, there is not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz or Sea of Oman, and we will persist."

Some vessels allegedly sunk may have been hidden in satellite images by haze or plumes, or hit in open waters, and have not been independently verified. Separate reports suggested that a ship from Iran was sinking near Sri Lankan waters, resulting in a search and rescue mission.

Rocket Sites and Nuclear Locations Attacked

The destruction of Iran's rocket sites and the stopping enrichment activities were declared as additional aims of the military strikes. Aerial imagery also showed damage at the southern Khorgu base and north-western Tabriz missile bases, and at the Konarak air base, where rocket warehouses and fortifications were struck.

Over at the Choqa Balk-e drone unmanned aircraft site west of the city of Kermanshah, significant destruction was seen to storage buildings, underground facilities and unmanned aircraft systems.

Impact was also noted at a surveillance station at the Zahedan military airport in eastern Iran, near the frontier with neighboring nations.

Perhaps most notably, the new round of strikes have reportedly targeted installations at the Natanz complex – considered at the core of the country's nuclear programme. The UN's atomic energy body stated that the affected structures were used for entry to the facility's underground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was anticipated.

Broader Consequences and Analysis

Military analysts stated that the attacks appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iran's naval capability to sustain conventional attacks using its biggest vessels. But, it was emphasised that Iran maintains the ability to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, midget subs and its so-called "clandestine network" of tankers.

The total scope of the damage caused to Iranian military infrastructure has yet to be fully assessed, with hostilities reportedly ongoing. Imagery also indicates considerable damage to the command center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the city of Tehran.

Numerous of civilian buildings also are reported to have been hit in the capital and throughout the country since the conflict escalated. Casualty figures from ground sources state that many hundreds of civilians may have been fatally injured in the bombardment.

Amid continuing hostilities, monitoring of space-based data will carry on to document the changing battlefield picture.