Satellite photos show damage at secretive IRGC ballistic missile base after Israeli attack

Israel’s attack on Iran likely damaged a base run by the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that builds ballistic missiles and launches rockets as part of its own space program, satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press today show.

The damage at the base in Shahroud raises new questions about Israel’s attack early Saturday, particularly as it took place in an area previously unacknowledged by Tehran and involved the Guard, a powerful force within Iran’s theocracy that so far has remained silent about any possible damage it suffered from the assault. 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.

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

High-resolution satellite images from Planet Labs PBC taken for and analyzed by the AP show the damage at the Guard’s Shahroud Space Center in Semnan, some 370 kilometers (230 miles) northeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Semnan also hosts the Imam Khomeini Space Center, which is used by Iran’s civilian space program.

The images show a central, major building at the Shahroud Space Center had been destroyed, the shadow of its still-standing frame seen in the image taken this 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.