Residents of Tehran woke on Sunday morning to an unsettling and, for many, terrifying scene. Thick black smoke from burning fuel depots blanketed the Iranian capital after Israeli airstrikes hit oil storage sites late on Saturday night, plunging a city of nearly 10 million people into an unnatural darkness that persisted well into the morning hours.
'The rain is black, I can't believe it, I'm seeing black rain,' Kianoosh, a 44-year-old engineer, said. 'It's even in Tajrish, which is miles and miles away from the oil tanks.' His account was far from isolated. Leila, a 27-year-old teacher, described the air as 'unbreathable.' 'Something like a black monster has swallowed the sky over Tehran,' she told the same publication. 'It's as if all the cars and the street pavement have been coated in black paint.'
