🔗 Share this article

A wave of American and Israeli strikes has reportedly sunk or crippled a minimum of eleven Iran's navy ships since Saturday, recently obtained satellite images reveal, with launch facilities and enrichment plants also sustaining hits.

Images of the southern Konarak naval naval base and the Bandar Abbas installation, which overlooks the strategic Hormuz Strait and is home to the main command of the Iranian navy, show smoke billowing from a number of ships on recent days.

Maritime Assets Sustained Major Losses

Included in the vessels destroyed was the Makran, Iran's biggest warship which had functioned as a drone carrier. Aerial imagery displayed thick smoke rising from the ship which had been moored at the Bandar Abbas base.

Analytical reports state that no fewer than five ships at Bandar Abbas were "damaged or eliminated". Photos of the southern end of the port depict smoke rising from the Makran, while additional ships appear to be impacted, with one of them seen burning.

Over at Konarak, images show numerous stricken ships, with intelligence reports identifying damage to six vessels. Photos from the start of the week also demonstrate that several structures at the base have been destroyed.

"For decades the Tehran government has disrupted commercial vessels," the head of US Central Command said. "At present, there is not a single Iranian ship underway in the Persian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Gulf of Oman, and we will continue."

A number of vessels reportedly destroyed may have been hidden in satellite images by cloud or smoke, or hit in open waters, and have not been independently verified. Separate reports indicated that a ship from Iran was foundering near Sri Lanka's waters, leading to a rescue operation.

Rocket Installations and Atomic Locations Hit

Eliminating Tehran's launch facilities and the hindering of atomic bomb programs were declared as additional goals of the offensive. Satellite images also depicted impacts against the southerly Khorgu base and northwestern Tabriz missile bases, and at the Konarak air base, where weapons bunkers and bunkers were hit.

At the Choqa Balk-e drone UAV facility to the west of the city of Kermanshah, significant destruction was observed to warehouses, bunkers and unmanned aircraft systems.

Impact was also noted at a surveillance station at the Zahedan airbase airbase in eastern Iran, near the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Perhaps most notably, the latest wave of attacks have reportedly focused on installations at Natanz – long said to be at the center of the country's enrichment efforts. An international watchdog said that the damaged buildings were used for access to the site's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was anticipated.

Broader Impact and Analysis

Observers stated that the strikes appeared to have "significantly degraded" the Iranian navy's capacity to sustain traditional warfare using its biggest warships. But, it was emphasised that Tehran still has the ability to launch irregular strikes at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, mini-submarines and its so-called "ghost fleet" of tankers.

The full scale of the damage caused to Iran's defense infrastructure has yet to be fully assessed, with strikes said to be continuing. Pictures also shows considerable destruction to the command center of the the IRGC in the capital Tehran.

A significant number of public facilities also are reported to have been struck in the capital and across Iran after the conflict started. Reports of deaths from ground sources suggest that many hundreds of civilians may have been lost their lives in the attacks.

With the conflict ongoing, monitoring of satellite imagery will continue to document the unfolding battlefield picture.