The US has warned of more strikes on Iran after launching an operation which killed its supreme leader.
With no end in sight to hostilities, Sky News has mapped the assaults on both sides – and the military assets at play in the region.
A regional conflict
The US began Operation Epic Fury with a series of strikes on Saturday morning, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his Tehran compound.
Israel joined the assault, killing dozens of top Iranian military officials in aerial strikes.
Iran retaliated by launching drones and missiles targeting Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman and Qatar.
Three American service members were killed in a strike on Kuwait, while an RAF base in Cyprus was also targeted in a drone strike.
How far can Iran strike?
Iran’s drone attack on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was a demonstration of its capabilities.
Its longest-range missile, the Sajjil, has a similar maximum range of up to 2,000km (1,240 miles), according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a defence thinktank.
That’s far enough to hit Moscow or Athens, though still well short of giving Iran the ability to strike the UK.
The UK’s base in Cyprus is well within range of not only the Sajjil, but also Iran’s Ghadr and Emad-1 missiles.
Fighter jets and airbases
Both the US and UK have airbases in the Middle East and Europe that can be used to launch attacks on Iran.
Over the past few weeks, US and RAF aircraft have flown to and from the Middle East, with a significant build-up at the bases.
Aircraft such as F22 fighter jets, C-17 military transport planes and KC-135 tankers are among the assets deployed by the US.
Diego Garcia is one of the airbases which has seen an increase in activity.
The site has been in the headlines over recent months, with Donald Trump criticising the UK’s plans to cede control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The Iran conflict has highlighted the strategic importance of the joint US-UK military base, with Sir Keir Starmer refusing permission for it to be used by the US to launch strikes on Tehran.
Satellite imagery captured over the base on Sunday morning shows at least 14 planes stationed next to the runway, including six F-16 fighter jets and two P-8 Poseidon maritime spy planes.
The rest are transport aircraft, including a C-5 Galaxy and three KC-135 Stratotankers, analysts at Jane’s Defence Weekly told Sky News.
The C-5 is the largest transport aircraft in the US arsenal, capable of transporting military vehicles and even fighter jets.
Flight tracking data shows that the C-5 belongs to the US military and arrived from South Korea on Saturday. A KC-135 Stratotanker was also seen en route to the base the same day.
As of Monday afternoon, flight tracking data shows a second US military C-5 was en route to Diego Garcia from the joint US-South Korean Osan Air Base.
Analysts at Jane’s Defence Weekly told Sky News that the UK does not operate any of the aircraft models visible in the satellite imagery, except for the P-8 Poseidon.
Naval assets
At least three US military ships are reported to be in the Persian Gulf, and 12 around the Middle East and Mediterranean.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was also seen under 200km (124 miles) from the coast of Iran on 25 February.
The Lincoln is one of the world’s largest military ships and can carry different types of aircraft including F-35 Lightning II fighter jets.
The nuclear-powered carrier was visible on satellite imagery off the coast of Oman.
It was accompanied by an unknown ship measuring 200 metres and was potentially used for replenishing or drills.
The largest aircraft carrier in the US naval fleet, the USS Gerald R Ford, was last seen on satellite imagery on 27 February in the Mediterranean Sea, just under 400km (248 miles) from the coast of Cyprus.
It was reportedly travelling with three US destroyers, capable of carrying more than 6,000 personnel in total.
Sky News has also tracked six Iranian ships using data from TankerTrackers, situated by Qeshm island in the strait of Hormuz.
They were last seen on satellite imagery on 28 February.
These ships have been in the area for more than two weeks. One of these is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Iris Shahid Bagheri, Iran’s first drone-carrier warship.
Frequently seen in the Strait of Hormuz, the ship can deploy around 60 drones, in addition to helicopters.
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Maps created by data journalist Alicja Hagopian, digital investigations journalist Ben van der Merwe, junior OSINT producer Freya Gibson, OSINT producer Lydia Morrish and junior digital investigations journalist Sophia Massam. Copy editing and production by Adam Parris-Long, assistant editor
The Data x Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done
