Israeli strikes on Iran damaged a secret military base located northeast of Tehran, which according to experts in has been linked to Iran's former military nuclear program in the past, as well as another base linked to the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program, an analysis of satellite imagery shows, the Associated Press reported.
Some of the buildings at the Parchin military base were damaged, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suspects that Iran has in the past conducted tests of explosives used to trigger a nuclear explosion. Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful, although the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an active weapons program until 2003, BTA said.
Damage can also be seen at the nearby Khojir military base, which analysts say hides a system of underground tunnels and missile production facilities.
Iranian armed forces have so far not acknowledged any damage at either Hojir or Parchin, although they have said Israeli strikes killed four Iranian soldiers operating air defense systems. .
Neither the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) nor Iran's UN mission responded to Reuters' request for comment.
It remains unclear how many total sites were targeted by the Israeli attack. There are currently no images of damage that have been released by the Iranian Armed Forces.
Iranian officials have identified affected areas in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces. Burnt fields could be seen on satellite images of the company “Planet Labs” around a natural gas extraction site in Ilam province, although it is not clear if this is related to the attack.
On the images of “Planet Labs“ in “Parchin”, located about 40 km southeast of Tehran, one building could be seen completely destroyed, while others appeared to have been damaged in the attack.
Satellite images of Hojir, about 20 km from the center of Tehran, show damage to at least two structures.