March 10, 2026
Though Israel claimed that the targets were military, Iran said the effects are comparable to chemical warfare on civilians. Even supporters of the US-Israeli regime-change war expressed unease.
Fire-lit streets, black acid rain
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces struck oil infrastructure sites in and near Tehran, including at least four major fuel reservoirs. The operation “significantly deepens the damage to the military infrastructure of the Iranian terrorist regime,” the Israeli government said.
Footage from Tehran shows massive fires with black fumes billowing.
In some cases, fuel apparently spilled into drainage systems and later ignited, sending long lines of flames along the streets. Eyewitnesses described the scenes as infernal.
By morning, Tehran residents reported black-stained “acid rain” falling from the sky, leaving stains on everything it touched.
People complained of headaches, a foul taste in their mouths, breathing problems, and other symptoms of air pollution.
The strikes “amount to nothing less than intentional chemical warfare against the Iranian citizens,” Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said on X. “The consequences of this environmental and humanitarian catastrophe will not be confined within Iran’s borders.”
Tehran residents vulnerable
Large fuel fires produce massive amounts of toxic chemicals and particulates that pose immediate and prolonged health risks. Soot, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, trace metals, and other harmful substances hit people with respiratory conditions and the elderly particularly hard. Long-term, these pollutants can cause severe conditions, including cancer. Driven high up in the atmosphere, they can travel thousands of miles; deposited on the ground, they pollute groundwater.
Iran dismisses ‘empty’ US threats, warns Trump of ‘elimination’ (VIDEOS)
Read more Iran dismisses ‘empty’ US threats, warns Trump of ‘elimination’ (VIDEOS)
Similar man-made incidents have occurred, such as the 2003 oil well fires set by Saddam Hussein’s forces during the US invasion, which had lasting effects on US troops on the ground. The Tehran fires stand out due to their proximity to a large population center with increased risk of acute exposure.
Tehran, a city of nearly 10 million people, lies in a semi-enclosed basin near the Alborz Mountains where air circulation is restricted, particularly in the winter and early spring, the Western-funded Conflict and Environmental Observatory (CEOBS) said in its damage assessment.
”While the health impacts of long-term exposure to air pollution are relatively well established, the literature on acute exposure for similar events is limited. Even less so on the compound effects of such exposures and those from other conflict pollutants such as pulverized building materials dispersed by blasts,” the report said.
According to Axios sources, Washington was surprised by the scale of the Israeli strikes. An Israeli official said the US message to Israel was “WTF?”
US President Donald Trump “wants to save the oil” and believes videos of burning tanks remind American voters of higher fuel prices, an adviser told the outlet.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading cheerleader for the regime-change operation who was “coached” by Israeli intelligence on how to convince Trump to attack Iran, urged the IDF to exercise caution.
“Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses,” he said. “The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”
Trump has said the potential to impose American control on Iranian oil exports factors into his administration’s calculations.
No off-ramp
Iran’s strategy in the conflict is to raise the cost of the war for the US and its supporters while withstanding US-Israeli attacks. Its strikes on Gulf states hosting American bases, including targeting energy infrastructure, and oil tankers trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz have caused a global energy price shock, which Trump has said is irrelevant in the big picture.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday expressed personal regret over the damage done to Arab nations and said Iran would stop attacking any country that it has not been not attacked from.
Contrasting with the defiant rhetoric of other Iranian officials, the remarks were seen by some as an offer of an off ramp. Trump called it evidence of Iranian weakness and doubled down on demands for unconditional surrender.
Deadly spiral
The conflict’s potential to become even more deadly was highlighted over the weekend by attacks on desalination plants in Iran and Bahrain. Freshwater is scarce in the Middle East, and desalination is a major source.
A strike on a plant on Qeshm Island on Saturday – which Tehran blamed on the US, calling it a dangerous precedent – reportedly left 30 Iranian villages without freshwater. The UAE rejected Israeli media claims that it was behind the strike. Bahrain accused Iran of targeting a desalination facility on its soil on Sunday morning.
Ali Larijani branded Trump’s threats “empty,” writing on Telegram: “Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Be careful not to be eliminated!”
A new wave of US-Israeli strikes has killed at least 40 people in Tehran, with the overall civilian death toll in the conflict on the Iranian side exceeding 1,300.
At the same time, Trump did not rule out new talks with Tehran while reiterating his criticism of Mojtaba Khamenei, who was elected as the supreme leader following the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has threatened to assassinate anyone who takes the post.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who held a phone call with Trump on Monday, said the escalating conflict risks entirely choking off the region’s oil exports through the now “de-facto closed” Strait of Hormuz. But will the Iran war make Russia richer?
15:44 GMT
Medical personnel have been dispatched to Beit Shemesh following reports of an Iranian ballistic missile strike, Israel’s emergency service spokesperson Magen David Adom has said.
15:34 GMT
US and Israeli strikes have to date damaged nearly 20,000 civilian buildings across Iran, the Islamic Republic’s Red Crescent Society has said.
This includes 16,191 residential units, 3,384 commercial units, 77 pharmaceutical and medical centers, and at least 69 schools, the organization’s chief Pir-Hossein Koulivand has said in a statement cited by PressTV.
15:21 GMT
Israel has “unlawfully” used white phosphorous munitions in its strikes on southern Lebanon, Human Rights Watch has claimed.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” the watchdog’s Lebanon researcher Ramzi Kaiss has said. “The incendiary effects of white phosphorus can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
15:18 GMT
The humanitarian situation in Lebanon has deteriorated since the escalation of Israeli attacks on the country earlier this month, the UN Refugee Agency’s representative in Lebanon, Karolina Billing, has said.
Around 100,000 Lebanese civilians have been displaced internally following Israeli evacuation orders in southern Beirut, and the 500 collective centers opened for them have been struggling to cope, she added.
“The humanitarian needs are really immense at the moment and they’re really growing by the minute,” Billings noted.
15:05 GMT
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has vowed to further escalate attacks on the Islamic Republic.
“Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran,” he said at a Pentagon briefing. “The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence.”
13:43 GMT
General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has claimed that American forces had destroyed 50 Iranian naval ships, some of which had been laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
13:18 GMT
UAE air defenses have destroyed eight ballistic missiles and 26 drones, the Defense Ministry has said, adding that nine drones fell on the country’s territory.
It added that since the start of the escalation, six people have been killed and 122 injured in Iranian strikes.
12:34 GMT
Russia is the “only winner” in the Middle East conflict, European Council President Antonio Costa has said, arguing that Moscow “gains new resources to finance its war against Ukraine as energy prices rise” and “profits from the diversion of military capabilities that could otherwise have been sent to support Ukraine.”
12:32 GMT
Iranian intelligence has claimed that Tehran destroyed half of the US and Israeli air defense radars, adding, as cited by Fars, that this “led the Americans to move defense equipment from East Asia to the region.”
It also suggested that the US and Israel had spent up to 75% of their ammunition due to continuous Iranian strikes, with new shipments still in transit.
12:31 GMT
Denmark’s Supreme Court has opened a hearing on a lawsuit filed by humanitarian organizations demanding a halt in arms exports to Israel.
The attempt to
topple the Iranian government is pushing the Middle East into an increasingly
deadly spiral of destruction
Israeli strikes on oil storage
facilities near Tehran over the weekend temporarily turned the Iranian capital into a fire-lit “hellscape,” with long-term environmental and health damage
expected.
Though Israel claimed that the targets were military, Iran said the effects are comparable to chemical warfare on civilians. Even supporters of the US-Israeli regime-change war expressed unease.
Fire-lit streets, black acid rain
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces struck oil infrastructure sites in and near Tehran, including at least four major fuel reservoirs. The operation “significantly deepens the damage to the military infrastructure of the Iranian terrorist regime,” the Israeli government said.
Footage from Tehran shows massive fires with black fumes billowing.
In some cases, fuel apparently spilled into drainage systems and later ignited, sending long lines of flames along the streets. Eyewitnesses described the scenes as infernal.
By morning, Tehran residents reported black-stained “acid rain” falling from the sky, leaving stains on everything it touched.
People complained of headaches, a foul taste in their mouths, breathing problems, and other symptoms of air pollution.
The strikes “amount to nothing less than intentional chemical warfare against the Iranian citizens,” Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said on X. “The consequences of this environmental and humanitarian catastrophe will not be confined within Iran’s borders.”
Tehran residents vulnerable
Large fuel fires produce massive amounts of toxic chemicals and particulates that pose immediate and prolonged health risks. Soot, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, trace metals, and other harmful substances hit people with respiratory conditions and the elderly particularly hard. Long-term, these pollutants can cause severe conditions, including cancer. Driven high up in the atmosphere, they can travel thousands of miles; deposited on the ground, they pollute groundwater.
Iran dismisses ‘empty’ US threats, warns Trump of ‘elimination’ (VIDEOS)
Read more Iran dismisses ‘empty’ US threats, warns Trump of ‘elimination’ (VIDEOS)
Similar man-made incidents have occurred, such as the 2003 oil well fires set by Saddam Hussein’s forces during the US invasion, which had lasting effects on US troops on the ground. The Tehran fires stand out due to their proximity to a large population center with increased risk of acute exposure.
Tehran, a city of nearly 10 million people, lies in a semi-enclosed basin near the Alborz Mountains where air circulation is restricted, particularly in the winter and early spring, the Western-funded Conflict and Environmental Observatory (CEOBS) said in its damage assessment.
”While the health impacts of long-term exposure to air pollution are relatively well established, the literature on acute exposure for similar events is limited. Even less so on the compound effects of such exposures and those from other conflict pollutants such as pulverized building materials dispersed by blasts,” the report said.
According to Axios sources, Washington was surprised by the scale of the Israeli strikes. An Israeli official said the US message to Israel was “WTF?”
US President Donald Trump “wants to save the oil” and believes videos of burning tanks remind American voters of higher fuel prices, an adviser told the outlet.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading cheerleader for the regime-change operation who was “coached” by Israeli intelligence on how to convince Trump to attack Iran, urged the IDF to exercise caution.
“Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses,” he said. “The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”
Trump has said the potential to impose American control on Iranian oil exports factors into his administration’s calculations.
No off-ramp
Iran’s strategy in the conflict is to raise the cost of the war for the US and its supporters while withstanding US-Israeli attacks. Its strikes on Gulf states hosting American bases, including targeting energy infrastructure, and oil tankers trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz have caused a global energy price shock, which Trump has said is irrelevant in the big picture.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday expressed personal regret over the damage done to Arab nations and said Iran would stop attacking any country that it has not been not attacked from.
Contrasting with the defiant rhetoric of other Iranian officials, the remarks were seen by some as an offer of an off ramp. Trump called it evidence of Iranian weakness and doubled down on demands for unconditional surrender.
Deadly spiral
The conflict’s potential to become even more deadly was highlighted over the weekend by attacks on desalination plants in Iran and Bahrain. Freshwater is scarce in the Middle East, and desalination is a major source.
A strike on a plant on Qeshm Island on Saturday – which Tehran blamed on the US, calling it a dangerous precedent – reportedly left 30 Iranian villages without freshwater. The UAE rejected Israeli media claims that it was behind the strike. Bahrain accused Iran of targeting a desalination facility on its soil on Sunday morning.
The American president earlier
claimed that new attacks would be “twenty times harder” if Tehran stops the
flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s top security official has
dismissed US President Donald Trump’s threats after he vowed to strike Iran
“twenty times harder” if it continues to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz
in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks.Ali Larijani branded Trump’s threats “empty,” writing on Telegram: “Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Be careful not to be eliminated!”
A new wave of US-Israeli strikes has killed at least 40 people in Tehran, with the overall civilian death toll in the conflict on the Iranian side exceeding 1,300.
At the same time, Trump did not rule out new talks with Tehran while reiterating his criticism of Mojtaba Khamenei, who was elected as the supreme leader following the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has threatened to assassinate anyone who takes the post.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who held a phone call with Trump on Monday, said the escalating conflict risks entirely choking off the region’s oil exports through the now “de-facto closed” Strait of Hormuz. But will the Iran war make Russia richer?
- The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps continues to block the Strait of Hormuz – but has reportedly promised full freedom of passage to any Arab or European country that expels US and Israeli ambassadors.
- Global oil prices briefly surged to nearly $120 per barrel on Monday before slipping back below the $100 mark. Trump has dismissed the spike as “a very small price to pay” for the war against Iran.
- As of Tuesday, the US-Israeli attacks have killed over 1,300 Iranian civilians, according to official data from Iran.
- The deadliest attack yet was a strike on a girls’ school in Minab in southern Iran that killed 168 children, with horrific footage emerging from the scene.
- US media outlets have said, citing available footage and analysis, that the school was hit by a US Tomahawk missile. Trump has dismissed the reports, insisting that Tehran is to blame.
- The US-Israeli strikes on oil facilities near Tehran have produced a “black rain” of toxic oil and soot, with residents reporting breathing difficulties. Online images and footage show thick smog over the capital, as Iran’s Red Crescent Society warns that the rain could be “highly dangerous and acidic.”
- US Central Command says eight service members have died in operations linked to the attacks on Iran, which has put its death toll in the hundreds.
- At least 13 Israelis have been killed in the crossfire so far. Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases in the region have killed at least four in the UAE, one in Bahrain, six in Kuwait, and two in Saudi Arabia.
- Follow our live coverage for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here and here.
15:44 GMT
Medical personnel have been dispatched to Beit Shemesh following reports of an Iranian ballistic missile strike, Israel’s emergency service spokesperson Magen David Adom has said.
15:34 GMT
US and Israeli strikes have to date damaged nearly 20,000 civilian buildings across Iran, the Islamic Republic’s Red Crescent Society has said.
This includes 16,191 residential units, 3,384 commercial units, 77 pharmaceutical and medical centers, and at least 69 schools, the organization’s chief Pir-Hossein Koulivand has said in a statement cited by PressTV.
15:21 GMT
Israel has “unlawfully” used white phosphorous munitions in its strikes on southern Lebanon, Human Rights Watch has claimed.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” the watchdog’s Lebanon researcher Ramzi Kaiss has said. “The incendiary effects of white phosphorus can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
15:18 GMT
The humanitarian situation in Lebanon has deteriorated since the escalation of Israeli attacks on the country earlier this month, the UN Refugee Agency’s representative in Lebanon, Karolina Billing, has said.
Around 100,000 Lebanese civilians have been displaced internally following Israeli evacuation orders in southern Beirut, and the 500 collective centers opened for them have been struggling to cope, she added.
“The humanitarian needs are really immense at the moment and they’re really growing by the minute,” Billings noted.
15:05 GMT
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has vowed to further escalate attacks on the Islamic Republic.
“Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran,” he said at a Pentagon briefing. “The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence.”
13:43 GMT
General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has claimed that American forces had destroyed 50 Iranian naval ships, some of which had been laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
13:18 GMT
UAE air defenses have destroyed eight ballistic missiles and 26 drones, the Defense Ministry has said, adding that nine drones fell on the country’s territory.
It added that since the start of the escalation, six people have been killed and 122 injured in Iranian strikes.
12:34 GMT
Russia is the “only winner” in the Middle East conflict, European Council President Antonio Costa has said, arguing that Moscow “gains new resources to finance its war against Ukraine as energy prices rise” and “profits from the diversion of military capabilities that could otherwise have been sent to support Ukraine.”
12:32 GMT
Iranian intelligence has claimed that Tehran destroyed half of the US and Israeli air defense radars, adding, as cited by Fars, that this “led the Americans to move defense equipment from East Asia to the region.”
It also suggested that the US and Israel had spent up to 75% of their ammunition due to continuous Iranian strikes, with new shipments still in transit.
12:31 GMT
Denmark’s Supreme Court has opened a hearing on a lawsuit filed by humanitarian organizations demanding a halt in arms exports to Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment