Massive explosion as drone strikes British oil firm in Iraq after chilling Iran warning

Marcus Donaldson
Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:23:17 +0000

Iranian Shahed drones have struck a British-owned Castrol oil facility in Erbil, Iraq, triggering a blaze that engulfed the entire depot.

The strike came just hours after the Islamic Republic warned it was considering recognising British installations as potential legitimate military targets.

On early Wednesday morning, three unmanned aircraft hit the plant directly, while a fourth was shot down before reaching its target, according to Erbil Governor Omid Xoshnaw.

No workers sustained injuries in the assault on the warehouses operated by the Sardar Group along the Erbil-Mosul road.

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Footage circulating on social media showed one of the drones careering across the sky, announced by the Shahed’s infamous shriek, before slamming into the Castrol facility and exploding.

In other clips, columns of black smoke could be seen rising from the site as flames consumed vast quantities of motor oil and logistical supplies.

"The repeated bombardment and the scale of the fire have left nothing inside the depot untouched by flames," Governor Xoshnaw told local news.

He confirmed the initial strike occurred at approximately 7:30am, targeting a storage depot containing automotive motor oil.

Firefighters rushed to tackle the inferno but were forced to contend with further bombardments as additional drones struck the same location around 8:40am and 10:20am.

"We arrived on the scene, but we could not put out the fire because of imminent threats of more drones,” Jawhar Omar of the Erbil fire brigade told Rudaw News.

Authorities subsequently ordered all personnel to withdraw from the immediate vicinity for safety reasons, allowing the blaze to rage through the highly combustible materials stored at the compound.

The assault on the Castrol facility formed part of a broader wave of Iranian aggression, with at least 30 drone attacks striking across the Kurdistan Region overnight.

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American fighter jets patrolled the skies above Erbil throughout Wednesday in response to the escalating threat.

Near Duhok, an American oil company, HKN, suffered its second attack since the conflict erupted on February 28 when Israel and the United States launched extensive air strikes against Iranian military installations.

The latest strike damaged HKN's storage facilities, following a previous assault on March 5 that caused significant destruction and halted production.

Hours earlier, the Iranian ambassador had warned the UK that it could strike British bases after Sir Keir Starmer permitted American bombers to conduct strikes against Iranian territory from RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia.

"This is a very important matter we are considering. This is a very important matter for our self-defence," Seyed Ali Mousavi told The Times.

"The military sections of our system will decide appropriately. It depends on your activities.

“It depends on the British decision about this matter. Every option should be considered. We are very careful and delicate about how to defend ourselves."

Mr Mousavi offered praise for Sir Keir Starmer's "initial position" to remain uninvolved in what the ambassador described as the "criminal act of the American side and the Israeli regime" against Iran.

However, the decision to allow US aircraft to operate from British soil has significantly complicated matters.

The Islamic Republic's threat comes just days after a top Labour minister assured Britons that the Islamic Republic was not planning to attack the UK.

Lord Coaker, head of international relations and diplomacy at the Ministry of Defence, said at a briefing attended by GB News that there was: “No intent on the part of Iran to target the UK”.

That message itself came soon after Tehran fired ballistic missiles at the Chagos Islands, where the joint British-American installation at Diego Garcia is found.