DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel’s strike on Iran likely hit a base run by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that builds ballistic missiles and launches rockets as part of its own space program, satellite images reviewed Tuesday by The Associated Press showed.

The damage to the Shahroud base raises new questions about Israel’s attack on Saturday morning, especially since it took place in an area previously unrecognized by Tehran and involved the Guards, a powerful force in Iran’s theocracy that has so far kept the silence about any possible damages he had. suffered as a result of the aggression. Iran has only identified the Israeli attacks as taking place in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, not in rural Semnan province, where the base is located.

It may also further restrict the Guard’s ability to manufacture solid-fuel ballistic missiles that it must stockpile as a deterrent against Israel. Tehran has long relied on this arsenal because it cannot acquire the advanced Western weapons that Israel and Tehran’s Gulf Arab neighbors have armed themselves with over the years, particularly from the United States.

Satellite photos previously reviewed by the AP of two military bases near Tehran, also targeted by Israel, show sites Iran uses there to manufacture ballistic missiles have been destroyed, further tightening its program.

“We don’t know if Iranian production has been crippled, as some people say, or if it’s just been damaged,” said Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who studies Iran. “We’ve seen enough footage to show there’s an impact.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Israeli military.

Images show a major building at the Shahroud base destroyed

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

Images show that a major central building of the Shahroud Space Center has been destroyed, with the shadow of the frame still standing seen in the image taken on Tuesday morning. Vehicles could be seen gathered around the site, presumably from officials inspecting the damage, with more cars than normal parked at the site’s main gate nearby.

Three small buildings just south of the main structure also appeared to be damaged. Iran has constructed new buildings at the base in recent months. Another hangar northeast of the main building appears to have been damaged.

Iran has not acknowledged any attack at Shahroud. However, given the damage to several structures, it suggested that the Israeli attack included precision strikes on the base. Low-resolution images from the attack showed signs of damage to the site not seen before the assault – further pointing to Israeli rocket strikes as the culprit.

“We can’t rule out 100 percent the possibility that it’s something else, but it’s almost certain that this building was damaged by an Israeli attack,” Hinz said.

Given that the large building was surrounded by earthen berms, that suggests it handled high explosives, said Hinz, who has long studied the site. That central site likely handles solid fuel blending and pouring operations, he added.

The large boxes next to the building are probably also rocket motor crates, Hinz said. Their sizes suggest they could be used for Iran’s Kheibar Shekan ballistic missile and the Fattah 1, a missile Iran has claimed is capable of reaching Mach 15 – which is 15 times the speed of sound. Both were used in Iran’s attacks on Israel during the Israel-Hamas war and the subsequent ground invasion of Lebanon.

The Shahroud strike, along with others across the country, likely put more pressure on the Iranian theocracy as it assesses the damage to its main weapons arsenal and tries to minimize the attack.

“Due to the preparation and vigilance of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the timely reaction of the country’s air defenses, limited damage was caused to some of the hit points,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a meeting with foreign diplomats on Tuesday in Tehran “Necessary steps were immediately taken to restore the damaged equipment to working condition.”

The US worries that the Guard’s space program is a cover for missile research

A short distance from the destroyed buildings is a concrete launch pad used by the Garda, which has carried out a number of successful missions putting satellites into space using mobile launchers. The Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, disclosed its secret space program as early as 2020.

The US intelligence community’s 2024 Global Threat Assessment said Iran’s continued development of satellite launch vehicles “would shorten the production timeline” of an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology.

ICBMs can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Iran is now producing near weapons-grade uranium after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers. Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear weapons if it chooses to produce them, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned.

Iran has always denied it is seeking nuclear weapons and says its space program, like its nuclear activities, has purely civilian purposes. However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program until 2003. Parchin, one of two military bases near Tehran targeted by Israel, saw a building linked to that program destroyed.

“As with Iran’s nuclear program, you’re not building the system itself, you’re building all the technology under the guise of a civilian program,” Hinz said.

Then Iran could make the decision to pursue the weapon — or use the knowledge as a bargaining chip with the West on international sanctions.

But for now, satellite photos suggest Iran is still trying to assess the consequences of Israel’s attack.

“The picture that emerges is one of significant damage to Iranian air defenses as well as missile launchers, both of which are intended to show the Iranians that they are vulnerable to further strikes if they try to retaliate,” an analysis published Monday by two experts at Royal The United Services Institute of Great Britain said.