🔗 Share this article

Multiple joint airstrikes has allegedly sunk or crippled a minimum of eleven Iran's navy ships starting the weekend, new satellite images reveal, with launch facilities and enrichment plants also coming under fire.

Photographs of the southerly Konarak naval base and the Bandar Abbas installation, which is located on the Strait of Hormuz and contains the main command of the Iran's naval force, depict smoke billowing from a number of warships on the start of the week.

Maritime Assets Sustained Substantial Damage

Included in the ships sunk was the Makran, the country's biggest warship which had been used as a drone carrier. Orbital photos showed dark plumes emanating from the vessel which had been docked at the Bandar Abbas base.

Analytical assessments state that no fewer than five vessels at the port were "damaged or eliminated". Imagery of the southern part of the port show smoke rising from the IRINS Makran, while another pair of ships are visibly impacted, with one of them seen burning.

At the Konarak base, images reveal numerous damaged ships, with intelligence reports pointing to damage to six vessels. Photos taken on the start of the week also show that a number of buildings at the installation have been demolished.

"For decades the Tehran government has disrupted commercial vessels," a senior US military official declared. "Today, there is not a single Iranian ship at sea in the Persian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will not stop."

Some ships reportedly sunk may have been hidden in aerial photos by haze or plumes, or hit in open waters, and have not been conclusively proven. Other accounts suggested that one Iranian ship was going down off the coast of Sri Lankan territorial waters, prompting a rescue operation.

Missile Installations and Nuclear Facilities Attacked

Eliminating Iranian missile bases and the stopping enrichment activities were listed as other goals of the military strikes. Aerial imagery also showed damage at the southerly Khorgu and north-western Tabriz facilities, and at the Konarak base, where weapons bunkers and bunkers were struck.

Over at the Choqa Balk-e drone base to the west of the city of Kermanshah, extensive destruction was identified to sheds, bunkers and UAV launching apparatus.

Destruction was also observed at a surveillance station at the Zahedan airbase in eastern Iran, close to the border with neighboring nations.

Of particular note, the latest wave of attacks have reportedly focused on sites at the Natanz complex – long said to be at the core of Iran's atomic program. A global monitoring agency stated that the damaged structures were used for access to the site's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no radiological consequence" was likely.

Broader Impact and Analysis

Military analysts suggested that the strikes appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iranian navy's capability to carry out standard operations using its largest vessels. Nevertheless, it was stressed that Iran still has the option to launch asymmetric warfare at sea through the use of drones, midget subs and its so-called "shadow fleet" of tankers.

The full scale of the damage caused to Iranian military infrastructure has yet to be fully assessed, with strikes said to be continuing. Imagery also indicates considerable damage to the headquarters of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the capital Tehran.

Numerous of non-military structures also appear to have been damaged in the capital and throughout the country since the fighting began. Casualty figures from local officials suggest that many hundreds of non-combatants may have been fatally injured in the strikes.

With the conflict ongoing, analysis of aerial photographs will persist to track the evolving battlefield picture.