Flames rise from an oil storage facility south of the capital Tehran as strikes hit the city during a US-Israeli military operation in Iran, Saturday, March 7, 2026.
Wahid Salemi/AP
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Wahid Salemi/AP
Israel targeted Iran’s oil facilities for the first time early Sunday, with videos showing huge flames lighting up the sky, while Tehran responded to attacks on its infrastructure by attacking its regional neighbor, hitting a desalination plant in Bahrain.
Meanwhile, Iranian state media reported that officials were close to announcing a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike at the start of the war. The Israel Defense Forces vowed to “pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor.”
Both President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have vowed to continue to hit Iran hard.
Here’s what to know as the escalating regional conflict enters its ninth day:
Iran and Israel attack critical infrastructure
This is the first time Israel has targeted a civilian oil facility in Iran. An Iranian news agency reported that at least four tanker drivers were killed.
The Israeli military says Iran frequently uses an oil storage facility in Tehran to maintain military infrastructure. Separately, Iran’s foreign minister said a US airstrike damaged an Iranian desalination plant for the first time.
A first in the Gulf – an Iranian drone attack damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain.
These attacks on energy and water infrastructure are a significant escalation in warfare. The region relies on desalinated seawater for drinking water. And much of the world depends on oil from the Gulf.
Iranian clerics say they have elected a new — unnamed — supreme leader
Iran’s Assembly of Experts is a group of clerics tasked with appointing a successor. A group member says they are working on approving a new leader and a majority consensus has been reached.
He did not say what that consensus was.
Israel’s military tweeted a warning in Farsi, saying Iran was trying to rebuild itself and elect a new leader and that a meeting of experts would soon convene in the city of Qom.
The military said Israel would pursue any successor to Khamenei and target participants in the selection process.
Netanyahu told a press conference that he was trying to “destabilize the regime and enable change.”
The bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon continues
The Israeli military targeted a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, killing at least four people, according to Lebanese health officials. The hotel attack was the first to hit the heart of the capital since the war with Iran began.
Thick smoke rises from an oil storage facility from the US-Israeli strike late Saturday, Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Tehran, Iran.
Wahid Salemi/AP
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The strike is part of Israel’s intensive bombing campaign in Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. About 300 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced, according to the Lebanese government.
Video shared online showed black smoke spewing from the window of a hotel room at the Ramada Plaza in central Beirut.
The Israeli military says it has killed five Iranian commanders of the Lebanese-based Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
“Iran will not allow terrorist entities to establish themselves on Lebanese territory,” it said in a statement.
Israeli strikes have focused mainly on southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, which are considered Hezbollah strongholds.
Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed political and military organization in Lebanon designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Hotels like the Rama in Beirut are filled with displaced families fleeing Israeli bombardment in the south.
Trump lashes out at Britain and China urges restraint
Trump attacked British Prime Minister Keir Stormer on Truth Social after reports that the UK was readying two aircraft carriers for deployment to the Middle East.
“That’s right, Prime Minister Stormer, we don’t need them anymore – but we remember. We don’t need people joining the war after we’ve already won!” said the US leader.
Britain is not involved in an aggressive campaign against Iran. After initially denying the US permission to use British bases to attack Iran, Stormer later endorsed “defensive” US action against Iranian missile sites from Indian Ocean bases in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said armed conflict in the Middle East would only breed hatred and called for a ceasefire.
“The mite won’t make it right,” he said, “the law of the jungle must not come back and rule the world.”
China has offered to mediate in the conflict, but is closer to Iran than the US or Israel.
That has raised questions about whether Trump will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a few weeks.
Attacks are intensifying in Iraq’s Kurdistan region
Attacks by Iran and its paramilitary proxies have intensified in Iraq and the country’s Kurdistan region. A missile attack on a US base at the international airport in the regional capital Erbil killed a Kurdish security member, while rockets hit the US embassy in Baghdad on Saturday.
Iran and its backed Iraqi forces hit a hotel used by the United Nations in the city of Sulaymaniyah, as well as a brigade of Kurdish fighters and an Iranian opposition base near a second city in the Kurdistan region.
An Iranian armed opposition group said a missile struck its base near Qomala, Sulaymaniyah, on Saturday, killing one of its fighters and wounding another.
The Iraqi government has vowed to arrest members of the militia responsible for the rocket attack on the US embassy in Baghdad. One of these rockets hit the embassy’s helicopter landing pad, security sources said.
NPR’s Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Beirut, Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg, Jane Araf in Erbil and Jennifer Pak in Beijing contributed reporting.
