Satellite Images Show Damage From Israeli Attack At 2 Secretive Iranian Military Bases

DUBAI: An Israeli attack on Iran damaged facilities at a secretive military base souast of Iranian capital that experts in past have linked to Tehran’s onetime nuclear weapons program and at anor base tied to its ballistic missile program, satellite photos analyzed Sunday by Associated Press show.

Some of buildings damaged sat in Iran’s Parchin military base, where International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon. Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and ors say Tehran h an active weapons program up until 2003.

or damage could be seen at nearby Khojir military base, which analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.

Iran’s military has not acknowledged damage at eir Khojir or Parchin from Israel’s attack early Saturday, though it has said assault killed four Iranian soldiers working in country’s air defense systems.

Iran’s mission to United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Israeli military.

However, Iranian Supreme Leer Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday told an audience that Israeli attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for an immediate retaliatory strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu separately said Sunday that Israel’s strikes “severely harmed” Iran and that barrage “achieved all its goals.”

Damage Spre Across 3 Iranian Provinces

It remains unclear how many sites in total were targeted in Israeli attack. re have been no images of damage so far released by Iran’s military.

Iranian officials have identified affected areas as being in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces. Burned fields could be seen in satellite images from Planet Labs PBC around Iran’s Tange Bijar natural gas production site in Ilam province on Saturday, though it wasn’t immediately clear if it was related to attack. Ilam province sits on Iran-Iraq border in western Iran.

most telling damage could be seen in Planet Labs images of Parchin, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) souast of downtown Tehran near Mamalu Dam. re, one structure appeared to be totally destroyed while ors looked damaged in attack.

At Khojir, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from downtown Tehran, damage could be seen on at least two structures in satellite images.

Analysts including Decker Eveleth at Virginia-based think tank CNA, Joe Truzman at Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former United Nations weapon inspector David Albright, as well as or open-source experts, first identified damage to bases. locations of two bases correspond to videos obtained by AP showing Iranian air defense systems firing in vicinity early Saturday.

Base linked to Iran’s Onetime Nuclear Weapons Program

At Parchin, Albright’s Institute for Science and International Security identified destroyed building against a mountainside as “Taleghan 2.” It said an archive of Iranian nuclear data earlier seized by Israel identified building as housing “a smaller, elongated high explosive chamber and a flash X-ray system to examine small-scale high explosive tests.”

“Such tests may have included high explosives compressing a core of natural uranium, simulating initiation of a nuclear explosive,” a 2018 report by institute says.

In a message posted to social platform X early Sunday, institute ded: “It is not certain wher Iran used uranium at ‘Taleghan 2,’ but it is possible it studied compression of natural uranium hemispheres, which would explain its hasty and secretive renovation efforts following IAEA’s request to access Parchin in 2011.”

It’s unclear what, if any, equipment would have been inside of “Taleghan 2" building early Saturday. re were no Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil industry, nor its nuclear enrichment sites or its nuclear power plant at Bushehr during assault.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, who les IAEA, confirmed that on X, saying “Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been impacted.”

“Inspectors are safe and continue ir vital work,” he ded. “I call for prudence and restraint from actions that could jeopardize safety & security of nuclear & or rioactive materials.”

Damage Seen at Facilities for Iran’s Ballistic Missile Program

Or buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included a warehouse and or buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.

In a statement issued immediately after attack Saturday, Israeli military said it targeted “missile manufacturing facilities used to produce missiles that Iran fired at state of Israel over last year.”

Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.

Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be “over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, n-commander of U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to U.S. Senate in 2022. In time since, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles in a series of attacks.

re have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following recent attack — suggesting that Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.

However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsab Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, country’s main gateway to outside world. Online videos of damaged building corresponded to an dress for a firm known as TIECO, which vertises itself as building vanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.

Officials at TIECO requested AP write company a letter before responding to questions. firm did not immediately reply to a letter sent to it.