Tehran's nearly 10 million residents woke this morning to a gloomy sky with thick black clouds, following Israeli airstrikes on several of the country's oil storage depots on the evening of 7/3.

"You can see the rainwater is actually black, seemingly mixed with oil," reported CNN correspondent Fred Pleitgen from the scene. "That's what fell this morning; an oily rain is descending on Iran's capital after the airstrikes."

The Israeli military stated it attacked fuel depots in Tehran, which they claimed supplied "various customers, including military units in Iran."

"This is a significant attack, a next step in efforts to severely weaken Iran's military infrastructure," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared.

Reuters news agency video also showed fire and thick black smoke rising from the Shahran oil refinery in Iran's capital.

Keramat Veyskarami, Director General of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, reported that "4 oil depots and one oil product transportation center in Tehran and Alborz province were attacked by enemy aircraft."

"four of our employees, including two tanker drivers, were killed," he added, noting that the facilities "were damaged" but "the fire has been brought under control."

Smoke from last night's fires enveloped Tehran, creating a black haze across the city as dawn broke, an AFP correspondent described. Residents reported a lingering burning smell.

Thick black sky over Tehran, Iran, on the morning of 8/3. *Photo: Turkiye Today*

The "black rain" phenomenon has occurred in the Middle East previously. On 25/2/1991, a mixture of oily rain and pollutants from Kuwaiti oil fires was recorded in three southern provinces of Turkey. According to The Associated Press (AP), the black rain lasted over 10 hours, blackened hands, and left stains on the clothes of those outdoors. A week prior, black rain also appeared in many areas of western Iran.

According to the US Department of Defense, smoke from burning oil wells in Kuwait was first detected via satellite imagery on 8/2/1991 and peaked from 22 to 24/2/1991. A low-pressure area over the eastern Mediterranean Sea drew the smoke northwest, spreading it into southern Turkey.

The smoke plume sometimes spread across the eastern Arabian Peninsula, encompassing the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh and Qatar, emitting a pungent odor and darkening the sky.

Vu Hoang (Sources: CNN, AFP, Yahoo News)