Secret Iranian military bases damaged by Israeli attack, satellite images show

An Israeli attack on Iran damaged facilities at a secret military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts have linked in the past to Tehran’s former nuclear weapons program and at another base linked to its ballistic missile program, satellite photos show that were analyzed on Sunday (October 27, 2024). ) Through The Associated Press show.

Some of the damaged buildings were at Iran’s Parchin military base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran has in the past conducted tests with explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, although the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an active weapons program until 2003.

The other damage was seen at the nearby Khojir military base, which analysts say hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.

The Iranian military has not acknowledged the damage at Khojir or Parchin from the Israeli strike early Saturday (October 26, 2024), although it said the attack killed four Iranian soldiers working in the country’s air defense systems. Iran announced on Sunday (October 27, 2024) that a civilian had also been killed, but did not provide details.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military declined to comment.

‘You should not exaggerate or downplay’

However, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told his audience on Sunday (October 27, 2024) that the Israeli attack “should not be exaggerated or downplayed,” while not calling for an immediate retaliatory strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said separately on Sunday (October 27, 2024) that Israel’s attacks have “seriously harmed” Iran and that the barrage “achieved all its objectives.”

It remains unclear how many locations in total were targeted by the Israeli attack. No images of the damage have been released by the Iranian military so far.

Iranian officials have identified the affected areas as being in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran. Burned fields were seen on satellite images from Planet Labs PBC around Iran’s Tange Bijar natural gas production site in Ilam province on Saturday (Oct 26, 2024), although it was not immediately clear if this was related to the attack. Ilam province is located on the Iran-Iraq border in western Iran.

The most striking damage was seen in the images from Planet Labs of Parchin, about 40 kilometers southeast of central Tehran, near the Mamalu Dam. There, one structure appeared to be completely destroyed, while others appeared damaged in the attack.

In Khojir, about 20 kilometers from central Tehran, 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 to the bases. The locations of the two bases correspond to videos obtained by the AP showing Iranian air defense systems firing into the area early Saturday (October 26, 2024).

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

“Such tests may include explosives that compress a natural uranium core, simulating the detonation of a nuclear explosive,” says a 2018 report from the institute.

In a message posted early Sunday (October 27, 2024) on the social platform has studied natural uranium halves, which would explain the hasty and secretive renovation efforts following the IAEA’s request for access to Parchin in 2011.”

It is unclear what equipment may have been in the “Taleghan 2” building on Saturday morning (October 26, 2024). There were no Israeli attacks on Iran’s oil industry, its nuclear enrichment sites, or the Bushehr nuclear power plant during the war. the attack.

Not affected, says Iran

Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the IAEA, confirmed this on X, saying: “Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been affected.”

“Inspectors are safe and can continue their vital work,” he added. “I urge caution and restraint in actions that could endanger the safety and security of nuclear and other radioactive materials.”

Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin were likely buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its vast arsenal of ballistic missiles, Mr. Eveleth said.

In a statement issued immediately after Saturday’s (October 26, 2024) attack, the Israeli military said it targeted “missile production facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran has fired at the State of Israel over the past year.”

Destroying such sites could seriously disrupt Iran’s ability to produce new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has remained silent since Saturday’s (October 26, 2024) attack.

Iran’s total arsenal of ballistic missiles, which also includes shorter-range missiles that cannot reach Israel, was estimated by General Kenneth McKenzie, then commander of the US Army’s Central Command, in testimony before the US Senate in 2022 at “more than 3,000”. Since then, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles in a series of attacks.

No videos or photos were posted on social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods after the recent attack — indicating that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate than Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel in April and October. Israel relied on rockets fired from aircraft during its attack.

However, one factory appeared to be affected 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 matched an address for a company known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.