- UAE defense ministry said Iran fired 137 missiles and 209 drones at the territory
- Qatar intercepted most of the 65 missiles and 12 drones launched by Iran, said officials
DUBAI: Fresh blasts were heard across the Gulf cities of Dubai, Doha and Manama on Sunday morning after a day of Iranian strikes in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.
AFP reporters heard blasts in Dubai, Bahrain’s capital Manama and Qatar — where AFP correspondents saw thick black smoke rising on the clear morning horizon in the south of the city.
The new explosions came after a day of deadly Iranian strikes in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, as well as hits on military bases and civilian infrastructure across the Gulf — except for mediator Oman.
Iran’s attacks on the Gulf raised fears of a wider conflict and rattled a region long seen as a haven of peace and security in the turbulent Middle East.
On Saturday, across the UAE, Iran fired 137 missiles and 209 drones at the territory, the country’s defense ministry said, with fires and smoke reaching landmarks The Palm and Burj Al Arab.
At Abu Dhabi’s airport, at least one person was killed and seven wounded during what the facility’s authority called an “incident.” Dubai airport, the world’s busiest for international traffic and Kuwait’s airport were also hit.
In Qatar, officials said Iran had launched 65 missiles and 12 drones toward the Gulf state, most of which were intercepted, but eight people were injured in the salvos, with one of them in critical condition.
On the first day of the strikes, smoke poured from US bases in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain’s capital Manama, home of the American navy’s Fifth Fleet, witnesses saw, with bases also targeted in Kuwait.
The oil-and-gas-rich Arab states, lying just across the Gulf from Iran, are long-term American allies and host a clutch of US military bases.
In Manama, the Iranian attacks saw drones and shrapnel slam into residential buildings, with video on social media showing smoke and fire from high-rises.
Saturday’s unprecedented barrage also targeted Qatar’s Al-Udeid base, the region’s biggest US military base, as well as Riyadh and eastern Saudi Arabia.
‘Significant damage’
The UAE, Qatar and Kuwait all announced that their airspace was closed.
An AFP journalist in Qatar saw one missile destroyed in a puff of white smoke, while another in Dubai saw a volley of Patriot interceptors taking off.
Iran fired missiles at Al Udeid last June after US strikes targeted Iranian nuclear facilities during a brief war with Israel.
In Kuwait, an Iranian missile attack caused “significant damage” to the runway at an air base hosting Italian air force personnel, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was quoted by the ANSA news agency as saying.
Late on Saturday, Kuwaiti officials said a drone targeted a naval base there with air defense forces intercepting the projectile, according to a post by the defense ministry on X.
For many residents in the Gulf, which has drawn a cosmopolitan, largely expat population, the reaction was one of shock.
“I heard the explosions, I don’t know what I felt,” a Lebanese woman living in Riyadh said.
“We came to the Gulf because it’s known to be safer than Lebanon. Now I don’t know what to do or how to think really.”
BY: The Times Union
