On Sunday, satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press revealed that an Israeli strike on Iran damaged facilities at a ballistic missile program and a covert military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts have previously connected to Tehran’s one-time nuclear weapons program.
Several of the destroyed structures were in Iran’s Parchin military base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency believes Iran has tested high explosives capable of detonating a nuclear weapon in the past. Although Tehran had an active weapons program until 2003, according to the IAEA, Western intelligence services, and others, Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is benign.
Other damage was observed at the nearby military base of Khojir, which researchers think conceals missile production facilities and an underground tunnel system. Israel’s raid early Saturday killed four Iranian soldiers who were working in the country’s air defense systems, but Iran’s military has not recognized damage at either Khojir or Parchin. An inquiry for response from Iran’s UN mission was not answered. The Israeli military opted not to respond.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, stated to a crowd on Sunday that the Israeli attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” but he refrained from demanding an immediate counterattack. Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that Israel’s attacks “achieved all its goals” and “severely harmed” Iran.
Damage spread across three Iranian provinces
The exact number of sites that the Israeli attack targeted is still unknown. The Iranian military has not yet released any pictures of the damage. According to Iranian officials, the impacted regions are located in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan, and Tehran. Although it was not immediately apparent whether the satellite photographs from Planet Labs PBC were connected to the attack, they showed burned areas surrounding Iran’s Tange Bijar natural gas extraction plant in Ilam province on Saturday. Western Iran’s Ilam province is located on the Iran-Iraq border. The most striking devastation was visible in photos from Planet Labs of Parchin, which is located close to the Mamalu Dam about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Tehran’s center. One building there seemed destroyed, while others appeared to have been harmed during the assault. Satellite photos showed damage to at least two buildings near Khojir, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Tehran’s capital.
The damage to the sites was originally noted by analysts such as Decker Eveleth of the Virginia-based think tank CNA, Joe Truzman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, and David Albright, a former United Nations weapon inspector, along with other open-source specialists.
Base linked to Iran’s onetime nuclear weapons program
Albright’s Institute for Science and International Security at Parchin designated the demolished structure pressed up against a mountainside as “Taleghan 2.” According to the report, an Iranian nuclear data repository that Israel had previously captured showed that the building contained “a flash X-ray system to examine small-scale high explosive tests and a smaller, elongated high explosive chamber. These tests might have involved high explosives compressing a natural uranium core, mimicking the detonation of a nuclear explosive”.
The institute added in a post on the social media site X early on Sunday: “It is unclear if Iran used uranium at ‘Taleghan 2,’ but it might have studied the compression of natural uranium hemispheres, which would explain its hurried and covert renovation efforts after the IAEA’s request to access Parchin in 2011.”
During the attack, Israel did not target Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, oil industry, or Bushehr nuclear power station. IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi affirmed that on X, stating that “Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been impacted. Inspectors are safe and continue their vital work. I urge caution and moderation in actions that may endanger the security and safety of nuclear and other radioactive materials.”
Damage seen at facilities for Iran’s ballistic missile program
According to Eveleth, other structures demolished at Khojir and Parchin probably housed facilities where Iran produced the solid fuel required for its vast ballistic missile arsenal using industrial mixers. The Israeli military claimed that it targeted “missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year” in a statement released immediately following the operation on Saturday.
After the two assaults on Israel, Iran’s capacity to produce new ballistic missiles to restock its stockpile could be seriously hampered by the destruction of such locations. Since the incident on Saturday, Iran’s ballistic missile program’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has remained silent. Videos and images of missile components or damage in civilian neighborhoods after the recent attack have not been shared on social media, indicating that the Israeli strikes were much more accurate than Iran’s ballistic missile barrages against Israel in April and October. Israel launched its strike with missiles fired from aircraft.
Read Also: Delhi’s AQI Worsens, “Severe” Conditions To Be Expected A Day Before Diwali
