Israel strikes Iran’s oil facilities for first time as war enters ninth day

Attacks spark huge fires as they hit four storage facilities and an oil production transfer centre in Tehran and Alborz.

Thick smoke has filled the sky over Tehran after Israeli air strikes hit Iran’s oil facilities for the first time since the war started, killing at least four people.

Joint attacks on Iran by Israel and the United States continued for a ninth day on Sunday, killing more than 1,300 people in Iran and about 300 in Lebanon. About a dozen people have been killed in Israel, according to officials.

The strikes on Saturday sparked large fires as they hit four oil storage facilities and an oil production transfer centre in Tehran and the province of Alborz, the Fars news agency reported, with the Iranian state media describing it as an “attack from the US and the Zionist regime”.

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

At least four tanker drivers were killed in the attacks in Tehran and Alborz, Fars reported. Despite the attack, “there is no shortage of fuel distribution”, and security forces are “currently engaged in firefighting operations”, it added.