Dubai: Satellite images are beginning to be released giving a glimpse into the toll of the Iran war, with ships ablaze in an Iranian port and destroyed buildings at an American base.
Information has so far been scarce about the damage being done across the Middle East, particularly when it’s inside closed military facilities, since the war started on February 28.
The images come from Planet Labs PBC, a San Francisco-based firm used by media outlets, including The Associated Press. Planet Labs has put a two-week delay on its imagery becoming public, citing concerns its imagery could be used by “adversarial actors”.
High-resolution images also have been published by competing firms. Other providers, like the US Geological Survey, have been publishing lower-resolution imagery as well that’s been useful.
The US and Israel have been striking a wide variety of targets, including leadership figures in Iran, military bases, missile and air defence sites and positions of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and its volunteer force, the Basij. Iran has responded with drone and missile fire targeting Israel and nearby Gulf Arab nations.
Here’s a look at what’s visible in a selection of Planet Labs’ pictures, as well as others.
Some of the most dramatic images from Planet Labs so far have been in Bandar Abbas, home to a major Iranian military port next to the crucial Strait of Hormuz connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
Images taken on March 2 show ships ablaze at the port. The US military’s Central Command has been targeting Iran’s naval assets and says it has sank or damaged more than 100 Iranian vessels so far in the war. Planet Labs’ images from March 6 show damage to several buildings at the Parchin military base outside Tehran, Iran’s capital.
The International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in the past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon. Iran long has insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, though the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an active weapons programme up until 2003.