🔗 Share this article

A series of US and Israeli airstrikes has allegedly eliminated or harmed no fewer than eleven Iran's navy ships since Saturday, new aerial photos demonstrate, with launch facilities and nuclear sites also being targeted.

Images of the southern Konarak naval military port and the Bandar Abbas installation, which is located on the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the headquarters of the Iran's naval force, show black smoke pouring from several warships on the start of the week.

Maritime Fleet Incurred Major Losses

Among the ships sunk was the Makran, the country's largest naval vessel which had functioned as a drone carrier. Aerial imagery indicated black smoke pouring from the vessel which had been docked at the Bandar Abbas naval base.

Intelligence evaluations state that at least five vessels at Bandar Abbas were "damaged or eliminated". Imagery of the southern part of the port depict smoke emanating from the Makran, while another pair of ships appear to be harmed, with one visibly ablaze.

At the Konarak base, images show multiple stricken vessels, with intelligence reports pointing to strikes against a half-dozen warships. Photos taken on Monday also show that several facilities at the base have been leveled.

"For many years the Iranian regime has disrupted commercial vessels," a senior US military official said. "At present, there is not one Iranian vessel underway in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz or Sea of Oman, and we will persist."

Some ships allegedly sunk may have been hidden in satellite images by cloud or smoke, or targeted offshore, and have yet to be fully confirmed. Additional information indicated that one Iranian ship was going down off the coast of Sri Lankan waters, resulting in a rescue operation.

Rocket Installations and Atomic Locations Attacked

Neutralizing Tehran's launch facilities and the stopping nuclear weapons development were declared as further goals of the air campaign. Satellite images also showed damage at the southerly Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz missile facilities, and at the Konarak base, where missile storage facilities and fortifications were hit.

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

Destruction was also observed at a radar installation at the Zahedan airbase airbase in eastern Iran, near the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Of particular note, the most recent series of strikes have apparently targeted sites at the Natanz complex – long said to be at the core of the country's atomic program. The UN's atomic energy body said that the affected buildings were used for entry to the facility's underground nuclear plant and that "no radiological consequence" was expected.

Wider Fallout and Analysis

Defense experts indicated that the attacks appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iran's naval capability to sustain traditional warfare using its largest warships. Nevertheless, it was noted that Tehran retains the option to launch asymmetric warfare at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, small submarines and its so-called "ghost fleet" of tankers.

The total scale of the destruction caused to Iranian military infrastructure is still uncertain, with strikes reportedly persisting. Imagery also reveals widespread damage to the headquarters of the the IRGC in the capital Tehran.

A significant number of non-military structures also appear to have been hit in the capital city and across the country since the fighting began. Reports of deaths from local officials suggest that hundreds of non-combatants may have been lost their lives in the bombardment.

As the situation develops, monitoring of satellite imagery will persist to track the unfolding scope of damage.