Iran war: What satellite images reveal after week 1

Imagery showing the extent of the damage to US military facilities across Gulf Arab countries is starting to emerge, part of Iran's furious response to an Israeli-American campaign that decimated its leadership. At least nine US military positions have been hit in less than 48 hours. These are relatively close targets. They're much nearer to Iran than its usual target, Israel.

That proximity may give Iran's missiles and drones a better chance of hitting their targets. This is the port of Sha'eba, where just after 9am on Sunday morning, an Iranian strike set a makeshift US operations center at the civilian port ablaze. Six American service members were killed in the attack. You can see smoke rising from the fire.

The blown out three-wide trailer blackened in the attack. You can see smoke rising from the fire. The blown

out three-wide trailer blackened on the inside. There are few signs of fortification. In another attack, a drone – this appears to be the Arash 2 – crashes into US positions in Camp Buring. A building, severely damaged. American helicopters parked inside the base were nearly hit. In Bahrain, a Shahid attack drone flies into the base that hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet, one of the largest American naval formations in the world. It looks alarmingly defenseless. The drone hits one satellite communication terminal, clearly seen here.

But the scale of the damage is more obvious here, where houses and other buildings damaged. And another satellite communication terminal destroyed in a separate attack. We see this pattern of targeting throughout the region. At least five satellite communication terminals were destroyed. It points to a possible Iranian effort to cut US bases off from the outside world. Iran used an unprecedented barrage of missiles and drones.

US Patriot missiles and other multibillion-dollar air defense systems shot most of these out of the sky. But the ones that got through were enough to puncture the veil of security around oil-rich Gulf Arab states and the heart of America's security infrastructure in the Middle East.

We have obtained incredible new satellite imagery and this is really important. It does show extensive damage at military bases across Iran, as you might expect, but that is what it shows. Now we're using these images to piece together how the United States managed to kill the country's supreme leader and so many around him that after they thought dark was light, darkness was done,

they're going to have this meeting, and was taken out, the US, we understand, had secretly been trailing him with intelligence for months. Katie Pogle is out front with this incredible report.

With Iran very much still under attack, we've been using videos and satellite images, like this one of the strike on the Supreme Leader's office, to analyze how the senior leadership was dismantled by US and Israeli strikes and where exactly they've hit. We now know from US and Israeli sources

that the CIA, along with Israeli intelligence had been tracking Iran's senior leadership for months. Then came intelligence about a perfect opportunity to strike in broad daylight when many of Iran's top officials would be in the same place at once. And that place was here, the leadership house and the hub of Iran's power. It's also the office of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, now confirmed dead. It's in a very old, traditional Tehran neighbourhood,

surrounded by government offices, scientific institutions and museums. Khamenei was known to not leave this compound much. He was seen here in this video just last week, addressing crowds at a mosque. The Israelis say they hit three sites on the compound simultaneously. We found several locations that have damage. You can see a central building completely flattened.

You can also see two craters here. This one appeared to have been targeting an underground structure, according to a former US Special Operations Tactical Advisor, Wes Bryant. Over here you can see crowds and emergency and construction vehicles. But this wasn't the only location hit. The Intelligence Ministry headquarters was also up in smoke yesterday. And then there's this strike, right outside

the house of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has today been reported dead by some Iranian outlets. CNN has not been able to confirm his death. Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader, has also been reported dead by the Iranian authorities. He narrowly escaped death last June when Israel struck his home in this precise targeting of a top floor apartment. Almost miraculously, he emerged from the rubble days later. This

time he was not so lucky. But others have been. The Iranian Foreign Minister here, Abbas Araghchi, was away in Geneva this week. The Oman foreign ministry posted this picture of him meeting his counterpart just four days ago. That trip may have saved his life. But Iran is very much still under attack. This IDF footage from Sunday morning shows a strike on the headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the notoriously brutal elite wing of Iran's military.

What happens next remains to be seen, but Iran is aggressively fighting back. Striking multiple US allies across the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, fires visible here over Dubai's port area, alongside Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.

I want to go to retired Army Major General Spider Marks now, out front, head of the geopolitical intelligence at Academy Securities. And you know, when you look at Katie's reporting, it's just incredible the detail and to look at that. Khamenei rarely left the compound where he was ultimately killed. So in a sense, as she reports, that was common knowledge. But the reason that they did this when they did it, we understand, is because all of the senior leadership came in here.

I mean, there was probably no bigger one strike to take out all that could have existed than this one. And it should have been pretty obvious that such a thing could have happened, I guess, in retrospect. I mean, what do you think, Spider? Was there any sign that this was coming to the Iranians?

They obviously did not think they had been penetrated.

Totally surprised. I think it's a combination, really speculation on my part, but I think it's a combination of hubris on their part, and the notion that they had been in negotiations with the administration over the course of several weeks, and reports at the end of last week indicated that progress had been made. In other words, they probably understood that they were now negotiating themselves into a position where there might be a delay on the part of the administration, that they were now negotiating themselves into a position where there might be a delay

on the part of the administration, that they were favorably aligned in some particular areas. And so they, who knows, who knows? It's absolutely baffling that they would do that, right? But also you have to understand that someone who doesn't leave the compound

for weeks on end probably is not surprising. We saw that with Osama bin Laden, although he never left that thing for the longest time, but he also isolated himself and he kept it very clear that his support network was as probably well-trained as they could be to obfuscate their kind of connectivity.

In this case, bringing 40-plus leaders to see the boss, very bad idea. But, again, I think it's probably those two factors that probably played into it. They probably thought they had more time. And technical talks were gonna take place

in Vienna on Monday. Obviously, those are off the table, of course.

Yes, it was a false sense of security.

And on the deadliest scenes of war, CNN is among news outlets reporting there may have been a strike from the United States that hit an elementary school in southern Iran, killing some 168 grade school students and 14 teachers. The investigation is ongoing. CNN's Isabel Young has an early CNN analysis.

Nearly a week after a strike killed scores of students in Iran's Minab, it seems more and more likely that the US was responsible. A new satellite image shows an Iranian Revolutionary Guards base and an elementary school in southern Iran. Here, you see craters in several of the buildings, including the school.

They were hit in their exact centers, suggesting precision strikes, experts say. A wall separates the, including the school. They were hit in their exact centres, suggesting precision strikes, experts say. A wall separates the school and the base. Satellite images from December show dozens of people in what appears to be a handball court at the school. Reuters now reports that US military investigators

believe US forces were responsible,

though they haven't yet reached a final conclusion.

It paints a picture of multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes. And it looks like these were delivered with explosive munitions, probably air-delivered. I think the most likely scenario in this case is that it's a US or Israeli air strike going a little high.

It's probably a targeting failure somewhere in the targeting cycle, an intelligence failure.

The Israeli military say they weren't operating in the area. To date, we've hit over 2,000 targets. American military officials say they carried out extensive strikes in this area and released this map, showing strikes in southern Iran.

The base and the school in Minab are located here.

We, of course, never target civilian targets, but we're taking a look and investigating that.

The damage we've seen is quite significant. It's unlikely it was something like an air defence missile fired by the Iranians, for example.

When we try to assess who is responsible for airstrikes, we typically try to examine the weaponry fragments left behind. But in this instance, there's an internet blackout in Iran. It's been really difficult to obtain that.

And so this investigation is still not conclusive.

Nick, you've been taking a closer look at some of the satellite images of destruction in Tehran what are you finding? Yeah it's important to

remind people of some of the images we've seen emerging from Tehran a lot of devastation smoke over the skyline and giving you a sense I think of obviously civilians caught at times in parts of this, but also too at moments some of the buildings that have been particularly targeted by Israeli and US airstrikes. Some of the satellite images here, I can't see the ones you're showing one by one Jake, but we're seeing images amongst these of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence, the Islamic Revolutionary

Court, the IRGC's Tar-Ala headquarters and even some damage sustained to a hospital when they seem to be targeting a communications tower outside a judiciary complex as well. It's important also to remind viewers that just today the assembly of experts appeared to have met in Qom to try and find a new supreme leader for Iran after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and there are some indications that this process may be moving forward quite quickly. But that building in Qom was hit by an Israeli airstrike.

Now there are suggestions in Iranian state media that in fact that building may have been evacuated. In fact, there are more reporting suggesting they may have tried to put those 88 senior clerics together to make this decision through virtual means, after all it is 2026.

A city under attack. It's also home to millions of people. The US and Israeli bombing campaign of Tehran has been targeting intelligence complexes, police stations, and state broadcasters. But we verified videos and analysed satellite imagery

and found the impact is going beyond that, due to the densely packed nature of the city and the large-scale weapons involved. Take a look at this satellite image. This crater is at least 40ft wide. That means it was likely caused by a 2,000lb bomb. The target, Iran's state broadcaster, the IRIB.

The strike wiped out its communications mast. These bombs used by both the US and Israel are capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away. And just 100 feet away is the Gandhi Hospital, one of the biggest in Tehran.

Glass shattered, walls collapsed, and patients, including babies, being rushed out. As more videos like this one began to emerge, we started verifying them, pinpointing the hospital where each one was filmed. Then we cross-referenced with satellite imagery

to see the damage caused by US and Israeli strikes. Like here, you can see the blown out windows of the Gandhi Hospital from space. Over in another central part of Tehran is the Motahari Hospital. And just behind it is the Iranian police headquarters.

In fact, you can see a police helicopter pad down here. This image is from just before it was struck. And this is after. Entire buildings flattened. The Motohari hospital is still standing, but we verified this video showing substantial damage inside.

It's not the only hospital in the area affected. Over here is the Khatam hospital. Glass windows shattered and medical staff are seen running out. Further down the same street is the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Smoke billowing from behind the building. Again people are fleeing.

Across Iran as a whole more incidents like these are emerging. We geolocated this video to the Persian Gulf Hospital in the city of Beshara. You can see newborn babies being carried out amid the rubble. It's unclear what the target was but it's close to an airport and military airbase. But it's not just hospitals. Other civilian sites are also bearing the brunt of these strikes. This school in southern Iran was directly hit, resulting

in the deaths of over 160 students and staff, according to Iranian state media. Neither the US nor Israel have acknowledged they caused the strike. It was just 200 feet from an Iranian military base. You can see multiple of their buildings hit as well as damage to the school. Another strike hit this gym in Fars, southern Iran. There were reportedly 20 volleyball players inside at the time, Iranian media said.

It was also right next to a police station. As strikes continue, access to safe medical facilities will be crucial. But the civilian toll is mounting. The Human Rights Activist News Agency now reporting over a thousand dead. Katie Pogles, CNN, London.

All right, can I ask you about the nuclear targets? Obviously, that was the entire focus of the operation last summer in which the United States said that Iran's nuclear program had been obliterated. Some of the satellite images that I saw the other day, I guess maybe 36 hours ago, Colonel, from Natanz, for example, post what they said were strikes, looked like nothing had been hit at all. It was very hard to tell. Are you actually seeing targeting of Iranian

nuclear sites this time? So that's a really interesting question. When you look at some of the imagery that we have right here, this is of Natanz, there is some damage to this particular area in this area, but the problem that you have is it doesn't seem to cover a lot of the other buildings that are part of that nuclear facility. So that's Natanz. There are other elements here, for example, at the Fordow site and at Esfahan, where there has been some damage to this, but we really don't have a good handle on whether or not

they've actually been able to create major damage. Now, the one thing to keep in mind, Erin, is that the B-2 bombers that were flying during the June attacks have maybe been flying just a little bit during this exercise, but they have not been able to really go in and take out anything. They haven't used those £30,000 bombs that they used back in anything. They haven't used those £30,000 bombs that they used back in June.