Before-and-after satellite images reveal the damage from Friday's attack linked to Israel on the Shikari Air Force Base near Isfahan. The footage, posted on X Sunday morning by Fardad Farhzad, a correspondent for the opposition news website Iran International, reveals significant damage to the air defense systems at the site.
On Friday, a senior U.S. official told ABC that the attack was carried out by fighter jets, which apparently launched three missiles at an air defense radar site that is part of the defense of the Natanz nuclear facility.
Before and after the attack on the Iranian base in Isfahan
The Shikari Air Base is located near the city's international airport. The potential targets at that base are bunkers, aircraft hangars and air defense systems, including launchers and radars, according to the Alma Research and Education Center. Isfahan is home to other military installations, one of which is an underground base for ballistic missiles in the city's northwest.
According to the Londaon-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, the base that was attacked is among the most important centers of the Iranian Air Force and includes the most advanced fighter jets in its arsenal.
The report quoted an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps intelligence-affiliated website, which reported that the base, known as Shahid Baba'i, is "the heart of the Iranian Air Force" and includes 17 air bases. The report quoted a U.S. website that reported the base hosts three fighter squadrons and two training squadrons of the Iranian Air Force, including F-7, F-14 and Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft.
The base is reportedly located northeast of Isfahan, about 12 miles from the nuclear research reactor and the industrial parks associated with the Iranian defense establishment and the Badr drone base in the southeast of Isfahan. It is also located 75 miles from the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, 175 miles from the Arak heavy water nuclear reactor, and about 155 miles from the Fordow underground uranium enrichment facility, dug under the mountains of the city of Qom.
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The military assets found on Shikari Air Base in Isfahan
(Image: Alma Research and Education Center)
The New York Times reported Saturday that at least one missile bypassed Iranian air defenses in the attack on the air base overnight Friday, launched from a fighter plane far from the borders of Iran or Israel. According to the report, several drones launched from inside Iranian territory were used simultaneously.
Western officials who spoke to the Times said that the use of these weapons sends a clear message to the Iranian regime, that this is only a "taste" of what it might suffer in the event of a large-scale conflict, thereby deterring Tehran after Its unprecedented attack of hundreds of missiles and drones on Israel last week.