🔗 Share this article

A wave of American and Israeli airstrikes has according to analysis sunk or crippled no fewer than eleven Iranian naval vessels starting the weekend, new orbital imagery reveal, with rocket sites and enrichment plants also coming under fire.

Pictures of the southern Konarak military port and the Bandar Abbas installation, which sits on the strategic Hormuz Strait and contains the headquarters of the Iranian navy, reveal black smoke pouring from multiple vessels on recent days.

Maritime Forces Sustained Major Losses

Among the vessels destroyed was the IRINS Makran, the country's biggest warship which had functioned as a unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Orbital photos showed dark plumes rising from the vessel which had been moored at the Bandar Abbas base.

Analytical reports suggest that at least a quintet of warships at the port were "hit or sunk". Pictures of the southern part of the port reveal smoke emanating from the Makran, while another pair of vessels are visibly impacted, with one of them visibly ablaze.

At the Konarak base, photos reveal multiple stricken ships, with analysis identifying strikes against six vessels. Images taken on Monday also indicate that a number of buildings at the installation have been leveled.

"For decades the Iranian regime has harassed global maritime traffic," a senior US military official stated. "At present, there is not a single Iranian vessel at sea in the Arabian Gulf, Hormuz Strait or Sea of Oman, and we will not stop."

A number of ships reportedly sunk may have been hidden in aerial photos by haze or plumes, or struck at sea, and have yet to be fully confirmed. Other accounts indicated that an Iranian vessel was going down near Sri Lanka's territorial waters, prompting a search and rescue mission.

Rocket Installations and Nuclear Locations Targeted

Neutralizing Iranian missile bases and the hindering of enrichment activities were declared as other aims of the military strikes. Aerial imagery also depicted strikes on the southerly Khorgu and northwestern Tabriz missile missile bases, and at the Konarak base, where weapons bunkers and fortifications were struck.

At the Choqa Balk-e drone drone base west of Kermanshah, widespread damage was seen to warehouses, bunkers and UAV launching apparatus.

Damage was also noted at a surveillance station at the Zahedan airbase military airport in eastern parts of the country, close to the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Significantly, the new round of attacks have reportedly hit sites at Natanz – considered at the center of Iran's enrichment efforts. An international watchdog stated that the affected structures were used for access to the facility's below-ground enrichment facility and that "no nuclear fallout" was expected.

Wider Impact and Assessment

Observers suggested that the attacks appeared to have "greatly reduced" the Iranian navy's ability to carry out conventional attacks using its largest vessels. However, it was emphasised that Iran maintains the ability to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of drones, midget subs and its so-called "shadow fleet" of oil ships.

The full scale of the destruction caused to Iranian military infrastructure remains unclear, with strikes said to be persisting. Imagery also indicates widespread destruction to the command center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the capital Tehran.

Numerous of non-military structures also are reported to have been hit in the capital and throughout the country since the conflict began. Casualty figures from local officials suggest that many hundreds of civilians may have been fatally injured in the attacks.

As the situation develops, monitoring of space-based data will persist to document the unfolding scope of damage.