Iranian state media reported US strikes on several spots in Bushehr province, home to the country’s sole civilian nuclear facility, marking the ninth straight night of US operations against Iranian military sites.
In response, Bahrain and Kuwait intercepted Iranian drones and missiles aimed at their airspace, with air raid sirens prompting residents to shelter but no flight disruptions reported. The exchanges stem from a week of tit-for-tat actions after Iranian attacks killed US service members in Iraq and Jordan, pushing oil prices above $90 per barrel while shipping lanes stay open.
Something struck near Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant. New satellite imagery, examined and reported by Al Jazeera, shows fresh damage inside the Bushehr complex following a round of US military strikes as tensions between Washington and Tehran continue to boil over.
So, what do the satellite images reveal? Al Jazeera compared European Sentinel-2 satellite photos taken on July 7 and again on July 12. The two images, laid side by side, show newly formed impact marks inside the Bushehr complex itself. A separate strike site also appears to have hit nearby support facilities connected to the plant.
To build a fuller picture of the strikes, Al Jazeera’s open-source investigative team compiled satellite imagery, ground footage, and official data released by US Central Command, mapping out where American strikes landed across Iran between July 7 and July 15.
Ehsan Jahanian, the deputy governor of Bushehr province, spoke publicly on July 9 about the scale of the strikes in the area. According to Iran’s state news agency IRNA, he confirmed that several sites across the province had been hit, including locations surrounding the nuclear plant, a military installation in Choghadak and a fishing port along the southern coast.
Jahanian later pushed back on claims that the reactor itself had taken a direct hit. He insisted the reactor remained undamaged and continued running as normal, according to the report.
These strikes are part of a much larger military operation the US has carried out against Iran. Central Command said it hit close to 90 military targets on July 7 and 8 alone, a list that included air defense systems, sites storing missiles and drones, naval assets and other military infrastructure scattered along Iran’s southern coastline.
Notably, US never listed Bushehr, or any nuclear site, among the targets it publicly acknowledged striking.
Why Bushehr Matters
Bushehr holds a unique place in Iran’s nuclear program. It’s the country’s only nuclear power plant currently in operation, sitting roughly 17 kilometers, or about 11 miles, south of Bushehr city. The complex spans 2.5 square kilometers and includes reactor buildings, cooling water channels that connect out to the ocean, assembly halls and a harbor once used to bring in equipment during construction.
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Two reactor buildings sit on the site. One is fully operational. The other has sat unfinished for years.
Data from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Power Reactor Information System shows the operational reactor, known as Bushehr-1, has a net electrical capacity of around 915 megawatts. It first connected to Iran’s power grid back in September 2011 and began full commercial operation two years later, in September 2013.
What sets Bushehr apart from enrichment sites like Natanz or Fordow is what’s actually inside it. The operating reactor holds nuclear fuel and radioactive material tied to power generation, which means any damage to its cooling systems, power supply or containment structure carries far more serious consequences than damage to a typical military site.
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