Thick black smoke billowed into the sky, making day seem more like night.

The low-grade oil has been used to fuel power plants amid Iran’s international isolation. Tanks of mazut may now be burning near the city.

A poster of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader is placed on an anti-riot police car as policemen stand on top of the car, during a rally to support him in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The skies of Iran turned orange as Iranians experienced some of the heaviest bombardment since the war began. It comes after President Trump warned Iran would be hit “hard” and Iran’s president rejected Trump’s demand for the regime’s unconditional surrender.

Though some Iranians mourned the death of their supreme leader, others rejoiced. Their celebrations were furtive and short-lived to avoid riot police or other authorities.

By Parisa Hafezi DUBAI, March 3 (Reuters) - Terrified residents of Iran's capital described it as a ghost town on Tuesday, its streets largely emptied by a U.S.-Israeli missile barrage apart from security checkpoints and Revolutionary Guards patrols that rove the city.

More than 2,000 Iranian drones have been fired at Gulf states since the start of the war in the Middle East on February 28, with Tehran targeting US allies in the Gulf. The Iranian regime claims to have decimated the US military in the region, while the US says it has destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels.

The warning came after Iran confirmed Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader.