Satellite images show damage from Israeli attack on 2 secret Iranian military bases

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel’s attack on Iran Facilities were damaged at a secret military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts in the past have linked to Tehran’s nuclear weapons program and at another base linked to its ballistic missile program, according to satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press on Sunday.

Some of the damaged buildings were demolished Iran’s Parchin military baseThe International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran has tested high explosives in the past that could trigger a nuclear weapon. Although Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful, the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an active weapons program as far back as 2003.

Other damage can be seen nearby. Hojir military baseAnalysts believe it conceals an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.

The Iranian military did not acknowledge any damage to Hojir or Parchin in the Israeli attack early on Saturday, but it was stated that four Iranian soldiers working in the country’s air defense systems were killed in the attack.

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

But, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei While he told listeners on Sunday that the Israeli attack “should not be exaggerated or underestimated,” he did not hold back from calling for an immediate retaliatory strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a separate statement on Sunday that Israel’s strikes “inflicted serious damage” on Iran and that the dam “achieved all its objectives.”

It is not yet known how many sites in total were targeted in the Israeli attack. So far, no damage images have been released by the Iranian army.

Iranian officials determined that the affected areas were in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces. Burnt areas were visible in satellite images from Planet Labs PBC around the Tange Bijar natural gas production facility in Iran’s Ilam province on Saturday, but it was not immediately clear whether this was related to the attack. Ilam province is located on the Iran-Iraq border in Western Iran.

The most visible damage can be seen in Planet Labs images of Parchin near the Mamalu Dam, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of downtown Tehran. One structure appeared to be completely destroyed and others were damaged in the attack.

In Hojir, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Tehran city centre, satellite images showed damage to at least two structures.

Analysts, including Decker Eveleth of the Virginia-based think tank CNA, Joe Truzman of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and former United Nations weapons inspector David Albright, as well as other open source experts, first identified the damage at the bases. . The positions of the two bases correspond to each other Videos obtained by AP It shows Iranian air defense systems opening fire in the vicinity early on Saturday.

Albright’s Institute for Science and International Security identified the collapsed building on the mountainside in Parchin as “Taleghan 2.” An archive of Iranian nuclear data previously seized by Israel stated that the building housed “a smaller, taller high-explosive chamber and a flash X-ray system for examining small-scale high explosive tests.”

“Such tests may have involved high explosives compressing the natural uranium nucleus, simulating the detonation of a nuclear explosive,” says a 2018 report by the institute.

In a message posted to social platform Secret renovation efforts following a request for access to Parchin in 2011.”

It was unclear what equipment would be located inside the “Taleghan 2” building early Saturday. There was no Israeli attack on Iran’s oil industry or nuclear enrichment sites. Nuclear power plant in Bushehr during the attack.

IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi confirmed in X that “Iran’s nuclear facilities were not affected.”

“Investigators are safe and continue their vital work,” he added. “I call for caution and to stay away from actions that could endanger the safety and security of nuclear and other radioactive materials.”

Other buildings destroyed in Khojir and Parchin likely included a warehouse and other buildings where Iran uses industrial mixers to produce the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.

In a statement made immediately after the attack on Saturday, the Israeli army said it targeted “missile production facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel last year.”

Destroying such facilities could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to produce new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal following two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guardsupervising country’s ballistic missile programHe has remained silent since Saturday’s attack.

Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes short-range missiles that cannot reach Israel, was estimated at “over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then commander of the US military’s Central Command, in testimony to the US Senate in 2022. Since then, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles in a series of attacks.

No videos or photos of missile fragments or damage to civilian neighborhoods were posted on social media following the latest attack; This shows that Israeli attacks are much more accurate than Iranian ballistic missile attacks targeting Israel. April And October. Israel relied on missiles fired from aircraft during its attack.

But a factory appears to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran, near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to the address of a firm known as TIECO, which bills itself as a manufacturer of advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.

TIECO officials asked the AP to write a letter to the company before answering questions. The company did not immediately respond to the letter sent to it.

___

Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.