A week on, how deep is the damage to Iran’s military might and nuclear programme?

Fire and smoke rise into the sky after an Israeli attack on the Shahran oil depot on June 15 in Tehran, Iran. Photo / Getty Images

Israel’s largest attack against Iran has targeted nuclear and military facilities, gas and oil depots and the government-run broadcaster.

More than 200 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded. Here is what is known about the damage to Iran’s strategic infrastructure so far.

Nuclear facilities

Israel launched the attack last Friday with waves of co-ordinated airstrikes hitting nuclear sites and killing much of the country’s military chain of command, along with several nuclear scientists.

Iran’s nuclear industry is well established, with over 30 facilities spread over the country, and some buried deep underground. Yesterday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said Israel had struck two centrifuge production facilities.

Natanz

The first strikes severely damaged Iran’s largest uranium enrichment centre, at Natanz, about 225km south of Tehran.

The UN nuclear watchdog initially reported that the strikes had damaged only the above ground part of the enrichment plant. It later revised its assessment to confirm “direct impacts” on underground enrichment halls.

Satellite imagery taken two days after the strike shows the tracks of heavy machinery and piles of dirt covering craters above where the enrichment halls are believed to have been built.

Isfahan nuclear technology centre

Iran’s most likely repository of near-bomb-grade nuclear fuel is stored at a complex outside the ancient capital of Isfahan. The stockpile has so far been spared from attack, but the Israeli military struck laboratories that work to convert uranium gas back into a metal — one of the last stages of building a weapon.

Fordow enrichment centre

As of today, Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear site, Fordow, remained undamaged. It was built deep inside a mountain to protect it from attack. Only the United States military has a bomb capable of even reaching it.

Striking Fordow is central to any effort to destroy Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons.

The site appeared to be intact in satellite imagery taken June 14.

A few other important nuclear facilities remain undamaged. Among them is Bushehr, Iran’s only operating nuclear plant.

Arak

Israel said it targeted Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor site “to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development”.

The site had been one of Iran’s key nuclear facilities, once thought to produce weapons-grade plutonium. But as part of the Obama Administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the site was retired and concrete poured into the reactor’s core.

Iranian state media reported that there had been no serious damage, no casualties and no radiation leak from the strike at Arak.

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed there were no radiological effects from the attack.

Israel also targeted at least one university associated with nuclear programmes. In an image posted on social media and verified by the New York Times, black smoke billowed from campus of the Institute of Applied Physics.

A few other institutions in the area are also associated with Iranian nuclear programmes, including Shahid Rajaee University and Malek Ashtar University of Technology. Both are under US sanctions. US officials believe they participate in research on nuclear warhead design.

Missile bases

Iranian missile capability was also degraded by the strikes. The Israeli military said that it had struck 12 missile launch sites and storage facilities on Wednesday alone.

Several Israeli strikes targeted a missile base in Kermanshah, where missile storage buildings can be seen with damage in a satellite image taken June 15.

Satellite imagery also shows damage at tunnel entrances to underground missile facilities.

In addition to Kermanshah, several other missile facilities were hit.

Energy infrastructure

With the second-largest gas reserves in the world and the fourth-largest crude oil reserves, Iran is one of the world’s major energy producers.

Over the weekend, Israel targeted Iran’s critical energy infrastructure. It struck Tehran’s main gas depot and its central oil refinery, according to a statement from Iran’s Oil Ministry. The ministry said Israel had also targeted a section of one of the world’s largest gas fields.

Video posted to social media and verified by the New York Times shows a large fire burning at the Shahran oil depot, north of Tehran.

Other infrastructure

Last Friday, Israel struck a military airport in Tabriz, a city in northwestern Iran. A video taken by a witness and verified by the New York Times shows large plumes of black smoke rising into the sky.

And on Tuesday, the Israeli military attacked the headquarters of Iran’s state television. A news anchor was speaking live on the air when an explosion shook the building, followed by the sound of breaking glass and screams.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Bora Erden, Marco Hernandez and Karen Yourish

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