Photo: Anadolu via Getty Images
Fuel distribution to residents of the Iranian capital has been halted following airstrikes on oil storage facilities in several areas in and around the city, Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, governor of the eponymous province, said on Sunday, March 8. “Due to damage to the fuel supply network, its distribution has been temporarily halted,” DW noted, citing state news agency IRNA.
The official added that the problem was being addressed and predicted that it would take 2-3 days to fix the consequences. Amid the shortage, Motamedian also urged residents of the capital region to “refrain from unnecessary travel and save fuel.” A large fire broke out near a gasoline storage facility in Tehran after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes.
CNN correspondent Frederick Pleitgen reported from the scene that “black rain” fell in the Iranian capital. This was the result of the clouds that had thickened over Tehran and absorbed the products of burning oil products.
Israel hit Iran’s oil infrastructure for the first time
On the eve of the Israeli military reported that they had carried out the first air strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure. According to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman, at least 30 oil tanks in Tehran were attacked.
An anonymous representative of Iran’s Oil Ministry confirmed to Fars news agency that three oil storage facilities in Tehran and the neighboring city of Karaj were attacked. As IRNA specified, two of these storages were located near a large oil refinery in the south of the Iranian capital, which was not damaged.
In addition, the IDF also claimed a pinpoint attack on commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Al-Quds Brigades in Beirut – the Ramada Hotel in the Lebanese capital was hit. It was also the first such attack on central Beirut since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, in which Israel has been attacking the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
