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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had killed Ali Shoeib, who worked for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV, describing him as a “terrorist” from Iranian-backed Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force who had “operated for years under the guise of a journalist”.

Behind a network of fake YouTube newscasts spreading propaganda in favor of Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, lies a hidden digital structure made up of dozens of websites and social media accounts. It is a much larger and still-active operation than initially believed, designed to distribute content as if it came from independent regional outlets.

In two previous reports, Cazadores de Fake News named this influence operation “Hispan Online.” The first revealed part of the network of YouTube channels whose videos appeared as ads on Venezuelan screens, pushing narratives favorable to the Rodríguez administration. The second report confirmed that the “anchors” were not journalists, but more than 20 actors living in Argentina who were hired through an intermediary agency. The videos racked up millions of views.

The channels mimic Spanish-language news outlets, presenting their content as if it were multiple spontaneous local coverages. So far, Cazadores has identified: Hispan Online (the most prolific producer and the network’s central amplification node), Nación Argentina, Colombia Actual, Panorama Colombiano, La Perspectiva Global, México en Datos, Informe Mexicano, United Data News, Continental Report, Nación Digital MX, Chile en Datos, Argentina en Perspectiva, EC En Análisis, and El Informe Europeo. All of them are part of the network identified so far as the YouTube arm of the operation.

But Venezuelans exposed to those videos are largely unaware that the operation extends far beyond YouTube. At least 30 websites were created as part of it, publishing more than 11,000 articles in just one month. Each site links to Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube accounts bearing the same names as the fake newscasts.

Domain records for some of these websites identify QSocial, an Argentine political communications firm, as the registrant of several of them. A separate investigation by La Nación points in the same direction.

YouTube channels as the tip of the iceberg

The propaganda videos promoted through YouTube ads amassed millions of views, but the 14 channels that initially hosted them hardly resembled real news outlets. Most displayed little more than a logo, and their videos were often not publicly listed.

Some channels, however, included short descriptions and, in some cases, a website address—such as colombiaactual.co for “Colombia Actual” and nacionargentina.info for “Nación Argentina.”

Ongoing monitoring of F. G. Medios S.A. (the company that paid for the YouTube ads) through Google’s Ads Transparency Center led to the identification of 30 distinct YouTube channels. Together, they published at least 90 videos and amassed more than 47.5 million views. Following the pattern of the web addresses, additional associated sites were expected: Manual searches confirmed 30 corresponding websites.

At least five of these sites embedded YouTube playlists or windows featuring the same fake “journalists” seen in the ads.

All 30 domains with known registration dates were created within just nine days, between February 17 and 25, 2026. Fourteen were registered on February 20 alone. This pattern mirrors the creation of the YouTube channels, which appeared between February 18 and early March. The clustering of dates is one of several technical indicators of coordination in this influence operation.

The sites also share a common technical architecture. All run on WordPress, use Cloudflare servers, were registered via Dattatec or DonWeb, use themes developed by Ansar, and have the same Jetpack plugin installed. Articles across all sites are published by the same three WordPress users: “administrador,” “periodista 1,” and “periodista 2.”

This is not a network of independently built websites. It is a single model replicated 30 times and operated by the same group. In total, the network includes more than 90 social media accounts: 30 YouTube channels, 32 Instagram accounts, and 29 Facebook pages. As of publication, most have minimal activity and almost no followers—but the infrastructure is in place and regularly updated.

Venezuela content stands out

With 30 active websites identified, the next step was to analyze their content. Reviewing each article manually was not feasible at that scale.

To do so, Cazadores de Fake News developed a tool—with assistance from generative AI—capable of automatically downloading all articles published across the 30 sites, including full text and images. The result was a database of 11,391 articles produced in just one month.

While most articles are not about Venezuela, it is the most frequently referenced country. With 1,912 pieces, Venezuela accounts for 16.79% of all content, ahead of Brazil (14.30%), Colombia (8.83%), Mexico (8.79%), and Argentina (8.12%). The rest covers other countries, helping each site appear as a regional outlet with its own editorial agenda.

Much of the Venezuela-related content mirrors the narratives promoted in the YouTube ads: favorable coverage of Delcy Rodríguez and her brother Jorge Rodríguez (who presides the Venezuelan parliament), reporting on the new amnesty and hydrocarbons laws, and stories highlighting positive economic projections and the oil sector.

The analysis also revealed another pattern: the same article often appeared across multiple sites with different headlines and slight rewrites tailored to each country, but with nearly identical core narratives. It is a form of serial production, where one base story is rewritten and redistributed to simulate independent local coverage.

One example is coverage of joint ventures between PDVSA and US oil companies. Articles published on March 16–17 across republicahoy.do, pulsonacional.mx, and panoramabrasil.info repeat identical figures (250,000 barrels per day, 22% of national output) while adapting their framing. The Dominican version adds references to Caribbean fuel prices. The Mexican version mentions the Dos Bocas refinery and the Energy Ministry. The Brazilian version refers to the Palácio do Planalto and investment opportunities for Brazil.

The texts share repeated transitional phrases—“in this context,” “on the other hand,” “diante deste cenário”—and identical section structures. The Brazilian version also contains errors suggesting automated translation, such as “empresas americana” instead of “americanas” and leaving “barriles” untranslated.

Although headlines and wording vary, these articles share one constant: they use exactly the same featured images. By comparing images across all 11,391 articles, the tool identified hundreds of such clusters. Contents largely consist of one base story, adapted and republished across multiple sites with the same photo.

This is the first time Cazadores de Fake News has documented evidence suggesting the use of automation or generative AI to sustain an influence operation of this scale targeting Venezuelan audiences. Producing more than 11,000 articles in one month, localized by country and language, would have been unfeasible for a small team of human writers.

The websites have so far attracted little traffic. But the infrastructure is active, content continues to be published, and the material already looks credible enough to be mistaken for real journalism.

The trail leads to QSocial

Despite the scale of the operation (30 websites, three social media platforms, and thousands of articles) those who registered the domains left traces. At least five domains lacked privacy protection, exposing registrant names and emails.

Three “.com” domains—brasilemdados24.com, ecuadorenanalisis.com, and panamaestrategico.com—list “QSN Big Data” as the registrant, linked to the email [email protected].

Two Dominican domains—diariocaribedigital.do and republicahoy.do—were registered on February 20 at the exact same second. Their records list “QSocial” as the registrant. These are different names pointing to the same corporate ecosystem.

QSN Big Data and QSocial are names used by the same Argentine political communications firm, which has also operated as QSocialNow. According to a March 23 investigation by La Nación, the company—led by former Chubut governor Martín Buzzi—produced the fake newscast videos. The outlet reported that the videos were recorded at the company’s offices in Buenos Aires, where actors were recruited through a casting process.

The firm also has a documented history within Venezuela’s propaganda ecosystem. After the July 2024 presidential election, it produced a poll under the name QSocialNow backing a decision from Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal to declare Nicolás Maduro the winner, despite widespread independent evidence of electoral fraud.

All domains in the network were registered through the same Argentine provider, within the same time frame, and using the same servers. However, this investigation could not determine whether QSocial itself entered the domain registration data or whether it was done by a third party.

Cazadores de Fake News and Argentine fact-checking outlet Chequeado contacted QSocial for comment. The company had not responded at the time of publication (March 24).

An unprecedented operation in Venezuela

Although QSocial director Martín Buzzi denied involvement to La Nación, the technical records documented in this investigation and the newspaper’s sources point to the same company. Who commissioned the operation and how it was financed remain unanswered questions.

It is also unclear whether the thousands of articles about Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and other countries are merely camouflage for the pro-Rodríguez campaign or part of parallel influence operations using the same infrastructure.

There is no recent precedent in Venezuela for an influence operation of this scale deployed in such a short period.

Before Google, Meta, or the operators themselves took down most of the YouTube channels and 15 Instagram accounts, the propaganda videos had already surpassed 47.5 million views. At the time of publication, all Facebook accounts and the 30 websites remain active.

The war in the Middle East took a serious turn when Israel bombed Iran’s energy facilities, pushing Iran to step up attacks on its Gulf neighbours.

The damage has been significant and will take years to repair. It also has long-term consequences, with Qatar already warning of a reduction in exports.

The escalation is dangerous, experts say, as energy exports from the Gulf region account for a fifth of global output.

So, what are the risks of turning energy facilities into battlefields?

Presenter: Imran Khan

Guests:

Mohsen Baharvand – Former Iranian ambassador to the United Kingdom

Jim Walsh – Research associate in MIT’s security studies programme

John Sfakianakis – Chief economist at the Gulf Research Center

The U.S. Air Force is now reportedly dropping its newest bunker-buster bomb, the 5,000-pound class GBU-72/B, on targets in Iran. The bombs are said to have been used in strikes on hardened Iranian anti-ship cruise missile sites along the highly strategic Strait of Hormuz overnight.

There are also reports that this is the first time GBU-72/Bs have been used in combat, but it is not clear if this is the case.

“Hours ago, U.S. forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote in a post on X, which did not name the munitions in question, last night. “The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait.”

“US official confirms this was the GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator,” CNN‘s Haley Britzky subsequently wrote on X. Fox News has also now reported the use of GBU-72/Bs in last night’s strikes.

Whether or not the GBU-72/B has been employed in combat previously is unclear. In 2024, CBS News reported that the Air Force had employed the bombs in strikes on an underground facility belonging to Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, citing unnamed officials. Fox News also reported again just today that the A5K’s first use had come during previous strikes on the Houthis.

There have also been reports in the past that Israel has at least sought to acquire GBU-72/B, but whether any have been delivered to that country is unknown. It is also still not known what munitions were used in strikes that left three very large and precise holes on the top of a site long linked to Iran’s nuclear program last week. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said they struck that facility, but that does not automatically mean that U.S. forces did not do so, as well.

When reached by TWZ, CENTCOM declined to comment on the specific munitions used in last night’s strikes along the Strait of Hormuz.

The GBU-72/B was developed to replace the older GBU-28/B, which first entered service in 1991. The GBU-28/B is another 5,000-pound class bunker buster, and it is unclear to what degree it remains in U.S. inventory.

What aircraft are currently cleared to employ the GBU-72/B operationally is also not clear. In 2021, the Air Force announced the successful release of an A5K from an F-15E Strike Eagle in testing. In 2024, pictures emerged of a B-1 bomber carrying one of the bombs on an external pylon under the forward fuselage in another apparent test. The Air Force has also raised the possibility of integrating the GBU-72/B onto the B-2 bomber in the past. F-15Es, B-1s, and B-2s are among the aircraft the U.S. military has been using to carry out strikes on targets in Iran.

In terms of the bomb itself, the A5K combines a BLU-138/B penetrating warhead with a tail kit containing a GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) guidance system. The tail kit is a variant of the one used on 2,000-pound class Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) precision guided bombs. Markings seen on live BLU-138/Bs in imagery the Air Force has previously released show that each warhead weighs around 4,422 pounds, with approximately 1,066.8 pounds of that being a combination of PBXN-109 and AFX-757 explosives. As an aside, those are the same two types of explosives used in the much larger 30,000-pound class BLU-127/B warhead for the GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb.

“With enhanced survivability, increased lethality, smart fuzing and utilization of fielded JDAM Navigation tailkits, the GBU-72 significantly improved performance reducing the number of weapons required to achieve a kill at lower AUR [all-up-round] cost,” according to Air Force budget documents. “A5K will replace the GBU-28.”

While the precise capabilities of the Air Force’s various bunker-busting munitions are a closely guarded secret, the original GBU-28/B bomb reportedly had the ability to penetrate through more than 150 feet of earth and at least 15 feet of reinforced concrete. In some cases, multiple bunker busters can also be dropped on the same aim point in succession to help burrow deeper down to the desired depth.

In addition, the GBU-72/B, like the GBU-28/B before it, offers a conventional bunker-buster capability that sits between bombs that use 2,000-pound class BLU-109/B warheads and the MOP. GBU-31/B JDAMs with BLU-109 warheads are already known to be in very active use in strikes on targets in Iran.

No shortages of GBU-31 2,000lb JDAM bunker busters at RAF Fairford. Some more pictures from yesterday. Many appeared to be loaded on or around B-52s from what I saw – with the B1-bs positioned further away from my viewing point. No idea what the Bones were loaded up with. All… pic.twitter.com/AAxlXwUZWc

— Chris Partridge (@Chris1603) March 18, 2026

With all this in mind, the GBU-72/B does offer the U.S. military a way to get after deeply buried or otherwise hardened targets in Iran (and anywhere else) that are beyond the reach of the BLU-109/B without having to use GBU-57/Bs. The MOP inventory is understood to be relatively small and largely reserved for use against very high-priority targets. Using GBU-72/Bs could also help ensure the destruction of a target, and do so with a smaller number of total munitions, compared to a strike employing 2,000-pound-class bunker busters.

Regardless of the munitions used, U.S. strikes targeting Iranian anti-ship cruise missile sites on the edge of the Strait of Hormuz speak to efforts now to reopen that critical waterway to regular maritime traffic. So far, we have not seen any clear evidence of Iran using its arsenal of thousands of anti-ship cruise missiles, which could turn the Strait into a super weapons engagement zone. Many of these missiles can also be launched from the backs of trucks that are hard to distinguish from civilian types.

Iranian aerial drone, missile, and uncrewed boat attacks, as well as the threat of naval mines, have already brought movement through the Strait to a virtual standstill. A small number of commercial vessels have continued making the transit, but very likely only with the approval of the regime in Tehran. This is already having massive negative impacts on global energy markets, as well as the overall economies of Gulf Arab States.

#Iran is permitting exit of the Gulf to select ships. But what is the rationale?

At least 5 vessels have transited outbound via the #StraitofHormuz in the past 48hrs but are taking an unusual route inside Iranian Territorial Waters.

All 5 vessels have transited the Larak Qeshm… pic.twitter.com/hOmfceYIju

— Martin Kelly (@_MartinKelly_) March 18, 2026

89 ships got through Hormuz March 1st-15th. “More than one-fifth of the 89 vessels were believed to be Iran-affiliated, while Chinese and Greece affiliated ships are among the rest, it said.” https://t.co/c7DzauV8ya

— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) March 18, 2026

The U.S. military has been exploring options for escorting convoys of commercial ships through the Strait, but this would still come with significant risks, as TWZ has explored in the past. U.S. President Donald Trump had initially appealed to allies and partners for help, but said yesterday that no assistance was necessary after receiving public rebukes from several countries.

“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’ [sic],” Trump wrote today in a post on his Truth Social site. “That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”

Trump: “I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’ That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!! President DJT” pic.twitter.com/pwbF1lYELS

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 18, 2026

A further uptick in strikes on Iranian targets along the Strait of Hormuz, including deeply buried and hardened sites that could necessitate the use of GBU-72/Bs, may now be on the horizon.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Iranian strikes come after Israel attacked Iran’s South Pars gasfield, with President Pezeshkian warning of ‘uncontrollable consequences’ that could ‘engulf the entire world’.

MCC Resources Sarl, a mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has suspended its activities in the country, following an attack on its mining sites in the Mambasa territory of Ituri province. On the night of March 11 to 12, terrorists attacked the mining site, killing scores, looting, and destroying facilities. 

The Allied Defence Forces (ADF), an affiliate of the Islamic State, recently claimed responsibility for the attack. Local sources told HumAngle that the ADF members came from Bapere, in Lubero territory of North Kivu. MCC Resources Sarl is a Congolese company with foreign investors, operating in compliance with the laws and economic standards of the DRC.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on gold mining sites operated by the Chinese Kimia Mining Enterprise, publishing photographs that showed burning trucks, tractors, and camps. 

The new attack is fueling debates on the realities faced by economic operators in the strategic gold mining zone, as well as on the impact of armed violence on the national mining investments in the DRC

“In an official correspondence addressed to the military governor of Ituri, the MCC Resources management indicates that due to the persistent degradation of the security situation in the Eastern part of the country, it had proceeded with the preventive evacuation of its personnel several weeks before the attack. According to the company, the incursion of armed groups not formally identified in the Muchacha site has led to acts of looting and sabotage aimed at its mining installations, without, however, causing the loss of human lives,” the company revealed in a statement released on March 15.

Faced with security risks deemed very high, MCC Resources announced the suspension of all mining activities at its Muchacha and Mavuvu sites until further notice, adding that its employees and partners remain its top priority. The company says it is following the evolution of the security situation to envisage, at the right moment, the progressive resumption of its operations.

The Congolese government has condemned the attack. In a communique also published on March 15, the government extended its condolences to the families of the victims and expressed its compassion to the populations of Mambasa territory affected.

United States President Donald Trump has said the country’s military bombed military installations on Iran’s Kharg island, warning the area’s critical oil facilities could be next if Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran, in turn, threatened on Saturday to reduce US-linked oil facilities to “a pile of ashes” if oil structures on the island were attacked, as the US-Israel war on Iran, now in its punishing third week, spilled over into a global oil price crisis already in the making.

Kharg island is where more than 90 percent of Iran’s oil is exported. Crude oil prices have surged more than 40 percent since the war began.

Trump said on Friday that US forces had “totally obliterated” all military targets on Iran’s Kharg island oil export hub, describing it in a social media post as “one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East”. He provided no evidence of that.

The US president said he had chosen not to “wipe out” oil infrastructure on the Iranian island, for now.

“However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision,” he added.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported, quoting sources, that more than 15 explosions were heard on Kharg island during the US attacks.

The sources said the attacks targeted air defences, a naval base, and airport facilities, but caused no damage to oil infrastructure. Iran’s Fars news agency reported thick smoke was seen rising from the island.

Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Tehran, said Iran’s potential retaliatory attacks on Gulf oil facilities would be a “catastrophic scenario” for the region, and for the “entire industry of oil and gas”.

“The Iranians are keeping this, apparently, as a card to use,” he said. “They’ve been talking about restraint and the possibility of that restraint ending if the Iranian oil facilities are attacked, as the Americans are hinting and threatening.”

US ground operation in the works?

Meanwhile, 2,500 more Marines and an amphibious assault ship are being sent to the Middle East, a US official told the AP news agency.

Elements from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli have been ordered to the region, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.

Marine Expeditionary Units are able to conduct amphibious landings, but they also specialise in bolstering security at embassies, evacuating civilians, and providing disaster relief.

“What we’re to make of this is that the US is very slowly increasing its military posture in terms of prosecuting the war, and that it is not intending to wrap things up any time soon,” Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan reported from Washington.

The deployment does not necessarily indicate that a ground operation is imminent or will take place.

Trump dismisses prospect of deal

Following the attack on Kharg island, Iran would be “wise to lay down their arms, and save what’s left of their country”, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal – but not a deal that I would accept!” he posted separately, providing no evidence Tehran was seeking any sort of deal.

At least 1,444 people have been killed and 18,551 injured by US-Israeli attacks on Iran since February 28, Iran’s Ministry of Health says.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said US-Israeli air attacks hit targets across the country, including in Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan and Tabriz. He said this was a sign that “we are not close to de-escalation.

“Iranian officials are talking about retaliatory strikes, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps talking about using what they call their most advanced weaponry, including Heidar missiles, to target Israeli territories and US bases in the region,” he said.

Israeli strikes on fuel depots and petroleum logistic sites in Tehran on Sunday saw apocalyptic images coming out of the Iranian capital, as the spilled oil ignited a river of fire, and thick black smoke blanketed the city of 10 million, leaving streets and vehicles covered with soot.

Israel and the United States claimed they were targeting Iranian military and government sites, but government officials and people say civilian structures such as schools, hospitals and major landmarks are increasingly coming under attack. At least 1,255 people have been killed in the strikes since February 28.

What Israeli and US military planners frame as a calculated degradation of state infrastructure is being described by local officials and environmental experts as an act of total warfare, and collective punishment.

Shina Ansari, head of Iran’s Department of Environment, described the systematic destruction of the oil depots as a blatant act of ecocide.

The attacks systematically targeted four major storage facilities and a distribution centre, including the Tehran refinery in the south and depots in Aghdasieh, Shahran, and Karaj. In the Shahran district, witnesses reported unrefined oil leaking directly into the streets as temperatures hovered around 13C (55F).

Ansari from Iran’s Department of Environment stated that the environment remains the silent victim of the war, noting that the incineration of vast fuel reserves has trapped the capital under a suffocating shroud of pollutants.

The medical and environmental fallout is immediate and severe. The Iranian Red Crescent Society warned that the smoke contains high concentrations of toxic hydrocarbons, sulphur, and nitrogen oxides. The organisation noted that any rainfall passing through these plumes becomes highly acidic, posing risks of skin burns and severe lung damage upon contact or inhalation.

Ali Jafarian, Iran’s deputy health minister, told Al Jazeera that this acid rain is already contaminating the soil and water supply. Jafarian added that the toxic air poses a life-threatening risk to the elderly, children, and those with pre-existing respiratory conditions, prompting authorities to advise residents to remain indoors.

The destruction has also forced the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum to slash daily fuel rations for civilians from 30 litres [8 gallons] to 20 litres [5 gallons]. At least four employees, including two tanker drivers, were killed in the depot strikes.

The strategic bombing myth

Major General Mamoun Abu Nowar, a retired Jordanian military analyst, told Al Jazeera that the primary objective of the strikes is to break the resilience of the Iranian people and paralyse the country’s logistics and economy.

“They are preparing the Iranian environment for an uprising against the regime,” Abu Nowar said, adding that the broader goal is to halt state operations and curb Tehran’s regional influence.

However, Abu Nowar raised urgent concerns about the specific munitions deployed, urging Iranian authorities to investigate the bomb fragments given the unusual density of the smoke and the resulting acid rain.

Some military strategists argue that striking an adversary’s vital infrastructure can paralyse the state from the inside out, bypassing the need to fight its military forces directly.

Modern warfare has increasingly relied on this strategic bombing via precision drones and missiles to destroy morale and incapacitate an adversary’s ability to wage war. For Israel, which is engaged in a genocidal war in Gaza and wider regional conflicts, targeting oil depots is viewed as a way to send a coercive message while avoiding a ground war.

However, Adel Shadid, a researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera Arabic that the strategy is designed to make life hell for ordinary Iranians in hopes of sparking an uprising. Shadid noted a glaring contradiction in the rhetoric of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who claims to support the Iranian people while overseeing the destruction of their basic means of survival.

Raphael S Cohen, director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program at the RAND Corporation, notes that such bombing campaigns consistently fail to achieve their primary goal of breaking a population’s will. Instead, Cohen argues, strategic bombing typically produces a rally-around-the-flag effect, unifying societies against a common foe rather than causing them to capitulate.

Historical echoes and retaliation

The reality of targeting oil infrastructure rarely aligns with sterile military theory, as history shows that such tactics reliably produce devastating, long-term environmental consequences.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the torching of Kuwaiti oil wells created a regional environmental catastrophe. Similarly, during the battle against ISIL (ISIS) in Iraq, the burning of the Qayyarah oil fields created a “Daesh Winter” that blocked out the sun for months.

The fires released vast quantities of toxic residues, including sulphur dioxide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, causing severe respiratory illnesses, soil acidification, and long-term carcinogenic risks for the local population.

Meanwhile, Mokhtar Haddad, director of the Al-Wefaq newspaper, told Al Jazeera Arabic that the targeting of energy hubs could trigger a global energy war.

According to Al Jazeera’s Sohaib al-Assa, reporting from Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has already retaliated by striking the Haifa oil refinery and targeting a US base in Kuwait, signalling that the conflict is no longer confined to military targets.

On Monday, Bahrain’s state-run oil company Bapco declared force majeure after waves of Iranian strikes targeted its energy installations. Iran has also been accused of also targeting energy facilities in other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Drone video showed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem empty at the start of the third Friday in Ramadan, after Israeli authorities restricted access to holy sites.