🔗 Share this article

Multiple joint attacks has allegedly sunk or crippled no fewer than eleven Iranian naval vessels since Saturday, freshly analyzed orbital imagery show, with launch facilities and atomic facilities also being targeted.

Photographs of the southern Konarak military port and the Bandar Abbas port installation, which sits on the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the headquarters of the Iranian navy, depict plumes of smoke rising from multiple vessels on the start of the week.

Maritime Forces Incurred Major Losses

Included in the ships sunk was the Makran, the country's most sizable ship which had been used as a drone carrier. Satellite images indicated thick smoke rising from the ship which had been stationed at the Bandar Abbas base.

Intelligence reports suggest that at least five vessels at the port were "struck or destroyed". Photos of the southern end of the port show smoke rising from the IRINS Makran, while another pair of vessels are visibly impacted, with a single one seen burning.

At the Konarak base, images display several stricken vessels, with analysis identifying strikes against six vessels. Photos from the start of the week also demonstrate that multiple buildings at the installation have been leveled.

"For many years the Tehran government has harassed international shipping," an American commander said. "Today, there is not one Iranian ship operational in the Persian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will continue."

A number of ships allegedly destroyed may have been obscured in aerial photos by cloud or smoke, or hit in open waters, and have not been independently verified. Other accounts indicated that a ship from Iran was foundering off the coast of Sri Lanka's waters, leading to a rescue operation.

Missile Sites and Nuclear Facilities Attacked

Eliminating Tehran's launch facilities and the hindering of enrichment activities were declared as further goals of the offensive. Satellite images also depicted damage at the southerly Khorgu and north-western Tabriz missile missile bases, and at the Konarak air air base, where missile storage facilities and bunkers were struck.

Over at the Choqa Balk-e drone unmanned aircraft site west of the city of Kermanshah, extensive damage was identified to warehouses, underground facilities and drone launch equipment.

Destruction was also seen at a radar installation at the Zahedan airbase in eastern parts of the country, near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Perhaps most notably, the latest wave of strikes have reportedly targeted sites at the Natanz complex – long said to be at the core of the country's enrichment efforts. A global monitoring agency stated that the damaged structures were used for entry to the site's underground nuclear plant and that "no radiological consequence" was likely.

Broader Impact and Assessment

Military analysts indicated that the strikes appeared to have "greatly reduced" the Iranian navy's capability to conduct traditional warfare using its biggest warships. However, it was emphasised that Iran retains the capacity to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of drones, mini-submarines and its so-called "clandestine network" of tankers.

The overall scope of the destruction caused to Iran's defense facilities remains unclear, with attacks reportedly persisting. Pictures also shows extensive destruction to the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the city of Tehran.

Numerous of non-military structures also seem to have been hit in the capital city and across Iran since the fighting started. Reports of deaths from inside Iran state that many hundreds of civilians may have been fatally injured in the attacks.

Amid continuing hostilities, analysis of space-based data will carry on to track the unfolding military landscape.