Israeli strikes hit key oil, energy sites in Tehran, triggering fires and panic

Indian Express

9 hours ago

Israel's latest wave of airstrikes on Iran has hit several major energy facilities in and around Tehran, igniting fires and triggering widespread panic among residents.
The attacks, which began late on Saturday and continued into the early hours of Sunday, targeted the Shahran fuel and gasoline depot in the north of the capital and the Shahr Rey oil refinery in the south, according to Iran's oil ministry and state media reports. The strikes sent thick plumes of smoke and flame billowing across the Tehran skyline.
'The fire is terrifying, it's massive; there is a lot of commotion here,' Mostafa Shams, a resident of Shahran told The New York Times. 'It's the gasoline depots that are exploding one after another, it's loud and scary.'
The Shahran depot, which contains at least 11 storage tanks and handles up to 8 million litres of gasoline daily, has long been viewed as a high-risk site. Officials say the facility holds enough fuel to supply the capital for up to three days. Explosions at the depot threatened nearby residential buildings, according to a ministry official.
In southern Tehran, emergency crews were dispatched to contain a fire at the Shahr Rey refinery, one of Iran's largest. Reza Salehi, a resident of the city, told NYT he could see the flames from miles away.
According to Israeli defence officials, warplanes also struck locations in Tehran linked to Iran's nuclear programme, including experimental research labs.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel also targeted energy infrastructure elsewhere in the country, including a section of the South Pars gas field, one of the largest of its kind in the world and central to Iran's energy production.
The attacks mark a significant escalation in Israel's military operations against Tehran, focusing not just on military or nuclear sites but on vital civilian infrastructure. 'We have entered the second phase of the war, which is extremely dangerous and destructive,' Abdollah Babakhani, a Germany-based expert on Iran's energy sector, told NYT.
Hamid Hosseini, a member of the energy committee at Iran's Chamber of Commerce, said officials had long debated relocating the Shahran depot due to the risks it posed. 'An attack or an accident here could be catastrophic,' he said.
(With inputs from Agencies, The New York Times)