In Pictures

Dark haze over Tehran as US-Israeli forces bomb oil storage facilities

Warplanes hit five oil facilities in overnight strikes in and around the Iranian capital, killing four people.

A dark haze hung over the city as Sunday morning broke and a smell of burning lingered in the air. — Smoke rises after a strike on oil storage facilities in Tehran. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]

By Anadolu, AP, EPA and Reuters

Huge fireballs and thick plumes of smoke rose over Tehran after joint United States-Israeli air strikes hit fuel depots in the Iranian capital.

Iran’s oil distribution company said four of its employees were killed in the blitz, as a dark haze hung over the city on Sunday and the smell of burning oil lingered in the air.

Saturday’s strikes triggered large fires after hitting four oil storage facilities and an oil transfer and production centre in Tehran and neighbouring Alborz province, the Fars news agency reported. Iranian state media described the incident as an “attack from the US and the Zionist regime”.

The facilities targeted were the Aghdasieh oil warehouse in northeast Tehran, the Tehran refinery in the south, the Shahran oil depot in the west, and an oil depot in the city of Karaj. Witnesses said oil from the Shahran depot had leaked into nearby streets.

Israel said it had struck “a number of fuel storage facilities in Tehran” that were used “to operate military infrastructure”.

Shortly after the attacks, which appeared to mark a new phase in the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would press on with the assault and strike Iran’s rulers “without mercy”.

“We have an organised plan with many surprises to destabilise the regime and enable change,” he said in a video statement. “We have many more targets.”

Joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran have continued for a ninth day, killing more than 1,300 people in Iran and about 300 in Lebanon, according to officials. About a dozen people have been killed in Israel.

Fire burns and smoke rises from Aqdasieh Oil Depot after being reportedly hit by strike, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran in this screengrab taken from a social media video released on March 8, 2026. SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. VERIFICATION: Reuters confirmed the location as Tehran by the road layout, utility poles and trees which match file and satellite imagery. The date of the video could not be verified, but no older version was found posted online before March 8. Israeli military also wrote on Telegram that it had struck a number of fuel storage facilities in Tehran on March 8. Iran’s state agencies reported attacks on a number of oil depots on March 7. NASA FIRMS detected thermal activity on coordinate 35.790649529257415, 51.539333520742645 at 1:50 a.m. on March 8 (10:20 p.m. UTC March 7). The coordinates were tagged as Petrol Storage Aqdasieh on the online map. — Fire burns at the Aghdasieh oil depot in Tehran, Iran. [Screengrab/Social Media via Reuters]

Smoke rises following an explosion, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 7, 2026. — Saturday’s strikes triggered large fires after hitting four oil storage facilities and an oil transfer and production centre. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]

Plumes of smoke from an oil facility linger and merge with the cloudy sky over Tehran — A dark haze hung over Tehran on Sunday morning, and the smell of burning lingered in the air. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]