By Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Commercial satellite imagery reveals that Israeli airstrikes targeted buildings used by Iran for mixing solid fuel for ballistic missiles during a recent attack, according to assessments by two American researchers.
David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and head of the Institute for Science and International Security research group, along with Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington think tank, both concluded that Israel struck Parchin, a massive military complex near Tehran. Additionally, Israel hit Khojir, a sprawling missile production site near Tehran, according to Eveleth.
It was reported in July that Khojir was undergoing significant expansion.
Eveleth suggested that the Israeli strikes may have greatly hindered Iran’s ability to mass produce missiles.
The Israeli military stated that three waves of Israeli jets targeted missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran early on Saturday in retaliation for Tehran’s missile barrage against Israel on Oct. 1.
Iran’s military claimed that Israeli warplanes used “very light warheads” to strike border radar systems in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan, and around Tehran.
Eveleth mentioned that an image from Planet Labs depicted an Israeli strike destroying two buildings in Khojir where solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed. The buildings were surrounded by high dirt berms, which are typically associated with missile production facilities to contain blasts.
Planet Labs imagery of Parchin showed that Israel destroyed three buildings where solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed, along with a warehouse, according to Eveleth.
Albright reviewed low-resolution commercial satellite imagery of Parchin that seemed to indicate that an Israeli strike damaged three buildings, including two where solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed. He did not disclose the commercial firm that provided the images.
These buildings, located near a former facility involved in Iran’s nuclear weapons development program that was shut down in 2003, are crucial for missile production. Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program.
“Israel claims they targeted buildings housing solid-fuel mixers,” Eveleth explained. “These mixers are difficult to manufacture and are subject to export controls. Iran has imported many of them over the years at great expense and will likely struggle to replace them.”
With this limited operation, Israel may have dealt a significant blow to Iran’s missile production capabilities and made it harder for future Iranian missile attacks to penetrate Israel’s defenses.
“The strikes seem to have been highly precise,” Eveleth noted.
Iran possesses the largest missile arsenal in the Middle East and has supplied missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, as well as to Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, according to U.S. officials.
Tehran and Moscow deny that Russia has received Iranian missiles.
Earlier this year, Planet Labs imagery analyzed by Eveleth and Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey revealed major expansions at Khojir and the Modarres military complex near Tehran, which they believed were aimed at increasing missile production, as reported by Reuters.
Three senior Iranian officials confirmed this assessment.