Satellite Images Show Damage At Iran's Nuclear Site After Israel Strikes

Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies revealed detailed visual evidence of the destruction caused by Israel's Operation Rising Lion against Iran, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat of nuclear weapons to Israel's very survival.

Israel has accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons programme in defiance of global warnings, pointing to enriched uranium stockpiles capable of producing multiple nuclear bombs. Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.

The newly released high-resolution satellite images show clear before-and-after comparisons of damage at Iran's key nuclear facility and the resultant damage.

Israel's operation included strikes on Iran's underground uranium enrichment sites at Natanz and Fordow, and a uranium conversion facility at Isfahan, according to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information from Iranian officials.

IAEA, also citing Iranian officials, said on Friday that a key, above-ground component of Iran's Natanz nuclear site had been destroyed.

After Israel launched its strikes, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said that nuclear facilities "must never be attacked" and that targeting Iranian sites could have "grave consequences for the people of Iran, the region, and beyond". He added that no radiation leak had been detected so far at the facility. 

There was "extensive" damage to the site's power supply, according to a report from the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US-based organisation specialising in nuclear proliferation, which analysed satellite images.

A loss of electricity to underground facilities can significantly damage the site's centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium, the ISIS institute said.

The nuclear facility at Natanz, located some 220 kilometers southeast of Tehran, is the country's main enrichment site. To defend against airstrikes, a part of the facility on Iran's Central plateau is underground. It operates multiple cascades, or groups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium.  

In the past, Natanz has been targeted with a computer virus, Stuxnet, some 15 years ago, and with sabotage and explosions, attributed to Israel, as recently as 2021. 

The nuclear facility at Fordo is located some 100 kilometers southwest of Tehran. It also hosts centrifuge cascades, but isn't as big a facility as Natanz. Iran has said the damage to Fordow, south of Tehran, was minor. But experts said it is impossible at this stage to determine the impact the strikes might have had on uranium stockpiles believed to be stored around the Isfahan site.

Buried under a mountain and protected by anti-aircraft batteries, Fordo, near the city of Qum, appears designed to withstand airstrikes. Its construction began at least in 2007, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, although Iran only informed the UN nuclear watchdog about the facility in 2009 after the US and allied Western intelligence agencies became aware of its existence.

Emphasising that the fight is not against Iranians, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Our fight is not with you. Our fight is with the brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years. I believe that the day of your liberation is near. And when that happens, the great friendship between our two ancient peoples will flourish once again."

He further stated that Israel will not let the world's most dangerous regime get the world's most dangerous weapons, adding that Iran plans to give those weapons, nuclear weapons, to its terrorist proxies. He stressed that if that happens, it would make the nightmare of nuclear terrorism all too real, and would bring that nuclear nightmare to the cities of Europe and eventually to America.