Fresh satellite images indicate continued activity and new evidence of substantial damage to tunnels and the Fordow uranium enrichment facility, resulting from last week’s airstrikes.
Israeli forces struck the facility on June 23, one day after the U.S. conducted attacks using bunker-buster bombs.
The new high-resolution satellite imagery, gathered by Maxar Technologies, displays an excavator and several personnel positioned directly next to the northern shaft on the ridge above the underground complex.
A crane also appears to be operating at the entrance to the shaft, with several additional vehicles visible below the ridge, parked along the access path constructed to reach the site.
Maxar’s photographs further reveal the complete destruction of a facility north of the site, surrounded by more craters and scattered dust. Another crater and clear burn marks are seen on a western access route.
Analysts believe the primary objective of the strikes was to impede access to the sites and complicate repair efforts.
Both the United States and Israel have stated that these military actions aimed at hindering Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has rejected these accusations, maintaining that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.
The Fordow site, which is buried within a mountain near Qom, approximately 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.
The following day, Israel confirmed it had conducted operations 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,” assessing the full damage would require time.
The latest strike on Fordow occurred as the Israel Defense Forces stated 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.”
Stephen Sorace and Yonat Friling contributed to this report.