Satellite pix show Israel destroyed ‘active top secret Iranian nuclear weapons base’ during revenge strikes

SATELLITE pictures show how Israeli airstrikes wiped out a top secret Iranian nuclear facility.

The Israeli airforce struck the nuclear weapons base in Tehran last month - crippling top equipment used to design parts for nuclear devices.

Satellite pictures showed Israeli forces hit the Taleghan 2 facility in the Parchin military complex, about 20 miles southeast of Tehran.

It was then said to be a defunct building that once formed part of Iran's inactive nuclear weapons development program.

However, the now-destroyed site was an active facility dedicated to the development of sophisticated nuclear device parts, Israeli and US officials told Axios.

A US official said: "They conducted scientific activity [at the facility] that could lay the ground for the production of a nuclear weapon.

"It was a top-secret thing. A small part of the Iranian government knew about this, but most of the Iranian government didn't."

Another former Israeli official told the media outlet that the base was used to design the plastic explosives that surround uranium in a nuclear device and are needed to detonate it.

Tehran has reiterated its claims about not pursuing nuclear weapons but is the subject of international scrutiny after resistance to external checks.

Decker Eveleth, a research analyst at Washington think tank CNA, told Reuters that the strikes also hit  Khojir, a sprawling missile production site near the capital.

He said the strikes could have "significantly hampered Iran's ability to mass produce missiles."

Dubbed "Days of Repentance", the Israeli strike in October was a long-anticipated response to Tehran's assaults against Tel Aviv.

The first wave of Israel's attack focused on Iranian air defence systems, with the second and third targeting missile and drone bases and production sites.

The blitz marked the first time Iran had been hit by a foreign air force since its war with Iraq in the 1980s.

In October, Tehran attacked the country with almost 200 ballistic missiles targeting the civilian population.

Live footage from Israel showed hundreds of ballistic missiles being shot down by Israeli air defences over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Air raid sirens blared across the country as innocent Israelis scrambled to take cover in their homes, under bridges, and in bomb shelters.

Deafening explosions have also been heard in the Jordan Valley, which sits on the border between Jordan and the West Bank.

It was an audacious move from Tehran that threatened to push the region into an all-out war.

Iran vowed to deliver a "crushing response" to Israel after the strike but has yet to act on it.

A former Brit commander said Tehran could unleash its sleeper cells of fanatics in the West in response to Israeli strikes.

Colonel Richard Kemp, who led Brit forces in Afghanistan, told The Sun it's a "real danger" that will soon become a reality when Tehran and its proxies decide to act.

He warned Iran could respond to Israel's revenge attack with its global network of sleeper cells - overseen by the fanatical Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

These types of attacks may include car bomb attacks outside Israeli embassies - carried out by Iran-backed terrorists such as Hezbollah.