Recent satellite imagery has revealed ongoing activity and fresh evidence of significant damage to tunnels and access roads at Iran’s underground Fordow uranium enrichment site caused by last week’s airstrikes.
The facility was targeted by Israeli forces on June 23, one day after the U.S. carried out strikes using bunker-buster bombs.
The new high-resolution satellite imagery, collected by Maxar Technologies, shows an excavator and several personnel positioned immediately next to the northern shaft on the ridge above the underground complex.
The crane also appears to be operating at the entrance to the shaft, where several additional vehicles are seen below the ridge, parked along the access path that was built to access the site.
Maxar’s photos also reveal the complete destruction of a facility north of the site, surrounded by more craters and scattered dust. One more crater and visible burn marks are seen on a western access route.
Analysts believe the primary goal of the strikes was to hinder access to the sites and complicate repair efforts.
Both the United States and Israel have stated that these military actions were aimed at hindering Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran has rejected these accusations, maintaining that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.
The Fordow site, which is buried within a mountain near Qom, about 60 miles southwest of Tehran, was bombed by the U.S. on June 22, resulting in six prominent craters and a noticeable spread of grey debris, according to satellite photos.
On the following day, Israel confirmed it had conducted a second strike on Fordow, specifically targeting the roads leading to the facility. Iranian officials later acknowledged this attack.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during a Pentagon briefing last Sunday that while all three Iranian nuclear sites targeted in the strike “sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” the full damage would take time to assess.
The latest strike on Fordow comes as the Israel Defense Forces said Israel also launched a series of strikes targeting the notorious Evin prison and several Iranian military command centers in an “ongoing effort to degrade the Iranian regime’s military capabilities.”
