Iran’s semi-official news agency posted photos of a drinking water reservoir that officials said was destroyed in a missile strike as well as images of munition fragments that experts told CNN appeared to be from a U.S.-made bomb.
CNN could not independently verify that the munitions shown in the image released by the Mehr news agency were found at the site. The photos of the damaged water tank were first geolocated to southern Iran by an independent researcher who posts under the name Accela dealer on X and confirmed by CNN.
The photo, released by Mehr alongside images of the destroyed water tank in Bamani, Iran, shows components of a GBU-39 series bomb, a precision-guided munition produced in the United States, according to munitions experts Trevor Ball, a former US Army senior explosive ordnance disposal team member, and N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of Armament Research Services.
Israel and some Gulf states also have the bomb in their arsenals. Ball said the damage to the water tank was broadly consistent with that from a GBU-39.
The US launched strikes against Iran on Tuesday in response to Iran downing a US helicopter; it’s unclear if the water tank was hit in those attacks.
US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Timothy Hawkins said the command was aware of reports and looking into the situation. He did not answer further questions about the water facility.
Civilian infrastructure
Water facilities are protected under the Geneva Convention. In March, US President Donald Trump floated the idea of the US attacking Iran’s water desalinization plants in a Truth Social post. The threat raised widespread alarm among America’s Gulf allies.
After the US strikes, Mehr quoted Abdul Hamid Hamzehpour, the chief executive of the Hormozgan Water and Wastewater Company, as telling the agency, “Two concrete water-storage reservoirs with a combined capacity of 2,500 cubic meters in the Bamani district were struck by missiles and completely taken out of service.”
According to the Iranian Tasnim news agency, which is associated with the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the reservoirs served at least 20,000 Iranians.
The photos published by Mehr show only the smaller of the two tanks, which has its roof caved in and is surrounded by debris. Large pipes can be seen leading into the tank, which could have held around half a million litres of water, according to measurements taken from satellite images.
If the water tank was destroyed amid the larger US attack in response to the helicopter downing, Ball said the location makes an error in the weapon’s guidance unlikely.
“It’s possible there was an error in targeting this building specifically, but a munition error is very unlikely,” Ball told CNN. “The munition precisely hit this building which is in a fairly remote area.”
