Satellite photos show Israeli strike likely hit Iran Revolutionary Guard base

Israel’s attack on Iran likely damaged a base run by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that builds ballistic missiles and launches rockets as part of its own space programme, satellite images analysed by The Associated Press on Tuesday showed.

The damage at the base in Shahroud raises new questions about Israel’s attack on Saturday.

It took place in an area previously unacknowledged by Tehran and involved the Revolutionary Guard, a powerful force within Iran’s theocracy that so far has remained silent about any possible damage it suffered from the assault.

High-resolution satellite images from Planet Labs PBC taken for and analysed by the AP showed the damage at the Guard’s Shahroud Space Centre in Semnan, some 370 kilometres (230 miles) north east of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Semnan also hosts the Imam Khomeini Space Centre, which is used by Iran’s civilian space programme.

The images showed a central, major building at the Shahroud Space Centre had been destroyed, and the shadow of its still-standing frame can be seen in the image taken on Tuesday morning.

Vehicles could be seen gathered around the site, likely from officials inspecting the damage, with more cars than normal parked at the site’s main gate nearby.

Three small buildings just to the south of the main structure and another hangar to the north east of the main building also appeared to have been damaged.

Iran has not acknowledged any attack at Shahroud. However, given the damage done to multiple structures, it suggested the Israeli attack included pinpoint strikes on the base.

Low-resolution images since the attack showed signs of damage at the site not seen before the assault — further pointing to Israeli missile strikes as being the culprit.

“We can’t 100% exclude the possibility it’s something else, but it’s almost certain this building got damaged because of an Israeli attack,” Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies said.

Iran only has identified Israeli attacks as taking place in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces — not in rural Semnan province where the base is located.

It also potentially further restrains the Guard’s ability to manufacture the solid-fuel ballistic missiles it needs to stockpile as a deterrent against Israel.

Tehran long has relied on that arsenal as it cannot purchase the advanced Western weapons that Israel and Tehran’s Gulf Arab neighbours have armed themselves with over the years, particularly from the United States.

Satellite photos analysed by the AP of two military bases near Tehran also targeted by Israel show sites that Iran uses in its ballistic missile manufacturing have been destroyed, further squeezing its programme.

Mr Hinz said: “We don’t know if Iranian production has been crippled as some people are saying or just damaged.

“We’ve seen enough imagery to show there’s an impact.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Israeli military.