Black smoke filled the skies, and water mixed with oil rained down on the Iranian capital of Tehran on Sunday, following a US-Israeli strike that blew up oil facilities, marking a new escalation of the bombing campaign.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it struck “several fuel storage complexes” around the city, and according to Al Jazeera, a total of four facilities were hit. Iran’s oil distribution company said at least four of its employees were killed in the attacks.
Footage from the aftermath of the strikes shows large fireballs and black smoke pouring from the sites that were hit. The lingering black smoke blotted out the sun, confusing Tehran residents who thought it was still night when they woke up.
Iranian authorities urged residents to stay inside, warning of the spread of toxic chemicals. The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that “significant quantities of toxic hydrocarbons, sulfur and nitrogen oxides” were released into the air by the US-Israeli strikes.
Frederik Pleitgen, a CNN reporter in Tehran, posted several videos showing that oil is raining from the sky. “I want to show you something because the rain that’s coming down seems to be saturated or filled with oil, you can see that it’s completely black. Everything on the ground is black as well,” he said in one video.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said that by “targeting fuel depots, the aggressors are releasing hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air, poisoning civilians, devastating the environment, and endangering lives on a massive scale.”
So far, the US-Israeli bombing campaign has killed more than 1,300 people in Iran, according to Iranian government figures. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, a US-based and US-funded NGO that’s very critical of the Iranian government, said on Saturday night that it has confirmed the killing of at least 1,205 civilians, including 194 children.