I just reviewed the satellite images circulating about the damages caused by the war in the Middle East, and honestly, they show a much greater scale of destruction than initially reported. Planet Labs and other satellite imaging companies have released high-resolution photographs revealing what really happened after February 28th, when the conflict between Iran, the United States, and Israel in the Persian Gulf region began.

The most striking images are of the port of Bandar Abbas. On March 2nd, several ships are seen completely engulfed in flames. The U.S. Central Command claims they have sunk or damaged more than 100 Iranian vessels since the start of the war, and honestly, looking at these photos, the numbers start to make sense. It’s hard to deny what the images show when they’re right there.

But Iran isn’t the only one taking hits. In Bahrain, the base of the U.S. Fifth Fleet appears with a main building completely destroyed and two radomes damaged, according to the record from March 1st. Iranian missile and drone strikes also hit nearby oil facilities. Iran has repeatedly confirmed that its forces attacked that base, and social media videos show direct fire on the complex.

What’s surprising is that the conflict is expanding beyond what many expected. France is also involved. On March 3rd, satellite images showed significant damage to two large hangars at the Camp de la Paix base in Abu Dhabi. A French military base damaged in the heart of the Persian Gulf is an escalation that no one saw coming with this intensity.

Then there are the massive fires. The U.S. Geological Survey used Landsat satellites to detect a huge fire at Dubai International Airport, caused by the impact of an Iranian drone on a tanker truck. The black smoke plume rose over the busiest airport in the world. On the same day, another fire was confirmed at the port of Salalah in Oman, attributed to drones allegedly launched by Iran, although Tehran denies it. Images show the fire was still active days later.

What’s interesting is that these satellite images were published with a two-week delay because Planet Labs explains they want to prevent hostile actors from using the material for military operations. But now that they are available, analysts can see the true extent of the damage in near real-time, beyond what governments are willing to publicly admit. It’s a reminder of how satellite technology is changing the way we view global conflicts.